#5 His entire family have their grounding in football
Mkhitaryan’s father, Hamlet, played as a centre-forward for Ararat Yerevan, Armenia’s most successful club in Soviet times – the late 1980s. He also represented the newly formed Armenia twice at the international stage. His father was Henrikh’s biggest role model. “When I was a child, I used to watch my father playing football, and I always wanted to follow him to training,” he said. “When he didn’t take me with him, I stayed next to the door, crying.
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“I always wanted to become a football player, and I thank my parents, as they helped me so much to realise this dream. They always supported me on my path.”
His father passed away from a brain tumour in 1996. However, football stayed in the veins in his family. His mother works for the Armenia Football Federation while his sister works for the UEFA.
