Manchester United star Henrikh Mkhitaryan is Armenian, spent some of childhood in France, had a trial with an Iranian team, played in the Ukraine and Germany, and is currently in England, but you wouldn’t think he has some influence from Brazil.
The player actually had a period of training at São Paulo, when he was still a teenager and went to Brazil with his youth club.
In an interview with ESPN Brasil, he recalled that time and revealed that his short time at the foreign club had some change in his game.
“It was very interesting for me because I always knew that Brazil is the land of football,” he said.
“And I wanted to learn something playing there. So I was very excited for being there at thirteen years old.
“The training sessions are really different than in Europe. It gave me a lot of skills, abilities, maybe even the playing style. I learned something good playing with good players.”
Manchester United’s Mkhitaryan shared a room with Hernanes, who was a youngster at São Paulo at the time and is now at Juventus. They’ve exchanged messages via the interview and said they still watch and support each other.
The Armenian was also asked about his hard time at Manchester United, as he stayed out of many games due to José Mourinho’s cjoices. But he doesn’t seem to be much concerned about it now.
“Yes, from the beginning it’s always hard. But I’m happy now that I could settle, playing the last three games and helping the team. So I’m trying to my best for this club, to continue to play and to show what I can do.”
