{"id":19872,"date":"2017-05-25T07:29:29","date_gmt":"2017-05-25T07:29:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=19872"},"modified":"2017-05-25T07:29:29","modified_gmt":"2017-05-25T07:29:29","slug":"new-york-times-manchester-uniteds-henrikh-mkhitaryan-brings-armenia-with-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aaeurop.com\/?p=19872","title":{"rendered":"New york Times “Manchester United\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Henrikh Mkhitaryan Brings Armenia With Him”"},"content":{"rendered":"

By RORY SMITH<\/span><\/span>

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan after scoring for Manchester United against Tottenham Hotspur in December.<\/span> Credit<\/span> Richard Heathcote\/Getty Images <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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MANCHESTER, England \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d Henrikh Mkhitaryan would be forgiven for not wanting to take his work home with him. His first season in the Premier League has, after all, been a demanding one, enough to make anyone cherish any chance at all to switch off.<\/p>\n

There has been the battle to win a place and establish his presence at Manchester United<\/a>; a collection of wonderful, occasionally gravity-defying<\/a> goals once he settled in; and then, as the campaign reached its climax, a relentless workload \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d games piling up in great drifts, culminating in Wednesday\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Europa League final<\/a> against Ajax in Stockholm.<\/p>\n

That would be enough, but Mkhitaryan has always been one of those players who struggle to relax. Early in his career, he tended to switch off his phone for \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093three days before a game,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d so determined was he to focus on the task in hand.<\/p>\n

Looking back, at 28, he knows that such intensity was unhealthy; he often felt \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093sad\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d for days after games, brooding over every perceived error, reproaching himself for every defeat, screening the calls of his friends and family in case he took out his frustration on them.<\/p>\n

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Clockwise from top, Henrikh Mkhitaryan playing for Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund.<\/span> Credit<\/span> Oli Scarff\/Agence France-Presse \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d Getty Images; Sergei Supinsky\/Agence France-Presse \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d Getty Images; Matthias Hangst\/Bongarts, via Getty Images <\/span><\/p>\n

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He is better at it now, he says, persuaded that it was counterproductive if his \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093muscles were tense all the time,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d but even now it remains a deliberate thing, requiring a conscious effort. He finds it hard to take it easy.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan (18) in action against Islambek Kuat, left, and Bauyrzhan Islamkhan during a World Cup qualifier between Armenia and Kazakhstan in March.<\/span> Credit<\/span> Vahram Baghdasaryan \/Anadolu Agency, via Getty Images <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
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It is eight years now since Mkhitaryan left. In the intervening years, he has played for four clubs (Metalurh and Shakhtar Donetsk, in Ukraine; Borussia Dortmund in Germany; and now United) and picked up four languages (English, German, Russian and Ukrainian) to add to the three that he already spoke (Armenian, French and Portuguese).<\/p>\n

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He has traveled thousands of miles. His journey has been long, and often lonely. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093I did not want to leave, especially,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he said. He did so because of his \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093dream of playing for one of the world\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s biggest teams, in the biggest stadiums, against the biggest opponents,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d but it was not easy.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He initially agreed to go to Ukraine \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093for six months, maybe a year,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d assured by Metalurh\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s Armenian owner that he would be able to return home if he could not settle there. He found being \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093so far away from my family\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d a challenge.<\/p>\n

When he moved across the city of Donetsk to Shakhtar, he lived in the club\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s training facility; he was nicknamed the President by his teammates. It was only at Dortmund that he agreed to take a club-recommended apartment. It was still difficult \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d he said he needed a year \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093to understand German, and 18 months to speak it.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n

In retrospect, of course, it has all been worth it. Mkhitaryan already ranks as the finest player his country has produced, and should United beat Ajax on Wednesday, he will be the first Armenian to win a major European trophy.<\/p>\n

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Henrikh Mkhitaryan, front row, right, with members of the Armenian national team before a friendly against Greece ahead of the Euro 2012 tournament.<\/span> Credit<\/span> Alexander Klein\/Agence France-Presse \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d Getty Images <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In his eyes, that is more than a piece of trivia. There is a particular burden on high-profile athletes from low-profile countries; voluntarily or not, they are compelled to play the part of ambassador and evangelist for their nations, charged with presenting the country\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s face to the world.<\/p>\n

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Mkhitaryan says he does not resent it; he would like to think victory against Ajax would not only provide him with a medal but also give others the chance \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093to find out what Armenia is, where it is.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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It is a subject that came up, again and again, last Friday when he sat in a changing room at Manchester United\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s youth academy at Carrington, just south of the city. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Wherever Armenians go, they create a new Armenia\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d around themselves, he said. He has done just that in Manchester: As well as watching as much soccer from home as he can, he has found an Armenian Apostolic Church \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093we were the first country to adopt Christianity, in 301 A.D.,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he points out, with the air of an earnest schoolteacher \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009d although he has not yet had time to visit.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

He has become a regular at the Armenian Taverna, sandwiched between a dry cleaner and a bank in the heart of the city. It has been there since 1968, but only since Mkhitaryan started popping in, once a week or so, has it started to attract the flashbulbs of the paparazzi. It is his little echo of home. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093The new Armenia in Manchester is in the city center,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he said. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093Near me.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n

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He seeks out other reminders, too. His last trip to the movies was to see \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093The Promise<\/a>,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d set in 1915, when as many as 1.5 million ethnic Armenians in the Ottoman Empire were killed in what historians have long accepted as a genocide.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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