However, after again featuring as a runner-up in the Bundesliga, Mkhitaryan relocated to England to join Manchester United in a deal worth £30 million (€34.3 million), becoming the first Armenian to play in the Premier League.
(meta data) TITLE: Manchester United complete signing of Henrikh Mkhitaryan on four-year deal | Football | The Guardian (meta data) AUTHOR: https://www.theguardian.com/profile/guardian-sport (meta data) PUBLISHER: https://www.facebook.com/theguardian (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2016-07-06T10:46:16-0400 Skip to main content The Guardian - Back to home Support The Guardian Available for everyone, funded by readers Search jobs Sign in current edition: US edition Live scores Manchester United This article is more than 3 years old # Manchester United complete signing of Henrikh Mkhitaryan on four-year deal This article is more than 3 years old • Armenia midfielder joins for undisclosed fee believed to be £30m • Mkhitaryan: 'This move is a dream come true for me' Guardian sport Wed 6 Jul 2016 10.46 EDT Last modified on Mon 31 Dec 2018 05.42 EST Henrikh Mkhitaryan said he was hoping to repay the trust of manager José Mourinho after signing for Manchester United. Photograph: Matthew Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images Manchester United have announced the signing of the midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan for an undisclosed fee believed to be £30m. Mkhitaryan has signed a four-year contract after joining from Borussia Dortmund, with the option for a further year. "Manchester United is delighted to announce that Henrikh Mkhitaryan has completed his transfer from Borussia Dortmund. Henrikh joins on a four-year contract with the option to extend for a further year," a statement on the club's website confirmed on Wednesday. ## José Mourinho's list of the youngsters he gave a debut to – fact or fiction? Read more Mkhitaryan, 27, made 140 appearances and scored 41 goals for Borussia Dortmund after joining them from Shakhtar Donetsk in 2013. The midfielder is Armenia's all-time top scorer, with 19 goals in 59 appearances since his international debut in January 2007, and he has collected the Armenian footballer of the year award on five occasions. Henrikh Mkhitaryan said: "I am very proud to join Manchester United, this move is a dream come true for me. I am excited to play for a club with such an illustrious history and hope to be part of it for a long time. I thank the trust the club and José Mourinho have put in me. Finally, I believe playing for such a great club honours my father's memory, and the inspiration and drive he gave to me when I was young." Henrikh Mkhitaryan (@HenrikhMkh) A dream come true! So happy to join @ManUtd, a club I always admired for its history & fans! pic.twitter.com/EkbNVKaOyS July 6, 2016 Mourinho added: "Henrikh is a very talented footballer who has been in such prolific form for both his club and his country. He is a real team player with great skill, vision and also has a good eye for goal. I am delighted he has chosen to sign for United. I believe he will make an impact on the team very quickly as his style of play is suited to the Premier League. We are all looking forward to working with him." United's manager later told MUTV: "We have brought in the player who was voted the best player in the French league [Zlatan Ibrahimovic] and with Micki we have brought the player who was voted the best player of the Bundesliga. He was voted not by the fans, not by the journalists but voted by the fellow players and that is what means more, I believe, because when your fellow players are the ones that choose you then it means a lot. "Micki is a fantastic player and what I like more is something that is undeniable, which is the number of goals that he scores by not being a striker. His number of goals per season is really high for somebody that is not a striker. The number of assists is also very clear because it shows clearly his creativity, his vision and his concept of collective play, and that is something that I believe is really important for a club like us. "We try to be dominant and will, for sure, face teams with a very defensive profile which is his capacity of acceleration of the game. He has a change of speed with the ball and without the ball, and that is very, very important for a club like ours." Mkhitaryan becomes United's third signing of the summer after deals for the Ivory Coast defender Eric Bailly and the former Sweden captain Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Manchester United Transfer window Borussia Dortmund José Mourinho Reuse this content
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Henrikh Mkhitaryan
Abstract.
Mkhitaryan plays mainly as an attacking midfielder, but can also be deployed as a wide midfielder. Born in Yerevan, Mkhitaryan began his senior career at local club Pyunik at age 17, and was instrumental in the side's success in domestic competition, winning four successive Armenian Premier League titles and an Armenian Cup. His success caught the attention of Ukrainian side Metalurh Donetsk, where he remained for a singular season before transferring to perennial Ukrainian Premier League champions and city rivals Shakhtar Donetsk in 2010, for a fee of €6.1 million. 
 During his time at Shakhtar, Mkhitaryan became renowned for his goalscoring prowess and footballing intelligence, and gained comparisons to Zinedine Zidane. Mkhitaryan would register a goal involvement every 0.75 games at Shakhtar, including a league record goal scoring total of 25 in 2012–13, while also being named Ukrainian Premier League Footballer of the Year. After achieving a domestic double in three of his four seasons in Shakhtar, his exploits in Ukraine eventually attracted Bundesliga club Borussia Dortmund, who signed the player after protracted negotiations for a club-record fee of €27.5 million, making him the most expensive Armenian player of all time. 
 In Germany, Mkhitaryan established himself as one of the best midfielders in Europe, with his creative and goalscoring abilities firing Dortmund to a DFL-Supercup in 2014. During the following campaign, he registered the most number of assists in the Bundesliga, with 15, which ranked him second for the most in Europe.