Henrikh Mkhitaryan

His father was a prominent striker for FC Ararat Yerevan during the 1980s, who died of a brain tumor at age 33 when Henrikh was seven years old.

Marina Taschyan's mother was Russian from Moscow.

The death of his father impacted Mkhitaryan significantly.

He feels that if his father was still alive that "everything would be different."

He gave him useful advice from a professional point of view.

People who have watched Mkhitaryan and his father, say that their styles resemble each other very much.

He has said, "I believe he sees me and is proud of me..."

His mother is the head of the national teams department in the Armenian Football Federation and his elder sister, Monica, works at UEFA's headquarters.

Henrikh Mkhitaryan (Հենրիխ Մխիթարյան, ; born 21 January 1989) is an Armenian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for club Inter Milan.

Mkhitaryan was born on 21 January 1989 in the Soviet Armenian capital city of Yerevan to Marina Taschyan and Hamlet Mkhitaryan.

At the beginning of the 1990s, the Mkhitaryan family moved to France, where Hamlet Mkhitaryan played for the now defunct ASOA Valence and helped them to be promoted to the second division.

Mkhitaryan spent his early childhood in Valence.

He always wanted to become a football player and began to follow in his father's footsteps.

As a child, he would watch his father play and always wanted to follow him to training.

The Mkhitaryans returned to Yerevan in 1995.

In the same year, Mkhitaryan joined the youth system of FC Pyunik.

He graduated from the Institute of Physical Culture in Armenia.

He studied economics at the Yerevan branch of the St. Petersburg Institute.

Upon graduation, he planned to study there as a lawyer.

Mkhitaryan joined the FC Pyunik youth system in 1995 and received his first salary at the age of 15.

In 2003, Mkhitaryan, aged 14 had trials with São Paulo in Brazil where he played alongside the likes of Hernanes and Oscar.

He returned to Pyunik in 2004, then manager Mihai Stoichiță insisted on his return to Armenia.

Growing up, Mkhitaryan considered Zinedine Zidane his football idol.

He was later promoted to the first team of FC Pyunik, making his professional debut in 2006 at the age of 17.

In his four seasons in the Pyunik first team, they won the Armenian Premier League on four occasions (2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009).

Mkhitaryan was a member of the senior side in his native country from 2007 until his international retirement in 2022.

He is Armenia's all-time top goalscorer, scoring 32 goals in 95 matches, as well as registering their first hat-trick.

They also won the Armenian Supercup twice (2007 and 2009) and the Armenian Cup once (2009).

Mkhitaryan won four Armenian Premier League titles with Pyunik, and joined Metalurh Donetsk in 2009; he moved to city rivals Shakhtar Donetsk in 2010 for €6.1 million.

He has been named Armenian Footballer of the Year ten times, being awarded the distinction every year since 2009 (with the exception of 2010 and 2018).

He last played for the club in the 2009 season.

During that season he scored 11 league goals in 10 league games.

At Shakhtar, Mkhitaryan set the league goalscoring record in the 2012–13 season, and was named the league's Footballer of the Year.

After also winning three domestic doubles, he signed for Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund for a club-record fee of €27.5 million, making him the most expensive Armenian player of all time.

Mkhitaryan was also voted the CIS Footballer of the Year in 2012 and 2013, making him the first Armenian footballer to be named the best player from the post-Soviet countries.

There, he won a DFL-Supercup in 2014, and in the following campaign, registered the most assists in the Bundesliga, with 15, the second most in Europe.

He then joined Manchester United for £30 million (€34.3 million), becoming the first Armenian to play in the Premier League.

He won the FA Community Shield, and scored the winner to win the UEFA Europa League title.

Mkhitaryan was then signed by Arsène Wenger for Arsenal in a swap-deal including Alexis Sánchez in 2018, and then to Serie A club Roma on an initial loan.

He signed permanently in 2020.