Recently, many negative comments have been made about soccer in
Armenia. We must take notice of the fact that many Armenian soccer
players are in the center of attention of many representatives of
international soccer leagues. Soccer player Edgar Manucharyan started
his career in the Shengavit district’s gym, then he trained with Pavel
Khachatryan and later got enlisted in the “Pyunik” team led by Mikael
Zakaryan. Edgar, who is 17 years old, has undergone a training period
in Marcel’s 10-day “Olympics”. At the present, Edgar has received an
invitation from the “Ajax” team of Holland. According to Edgar, the
representatives of the “Ajax” team had been following up on his games
for a while. The “Ajax” league has participated in the tournament in
the city of Bordo in France where the “Pyunik” team won 3-1. That was
what helped the representatives of the “Ajax” team to enroll the
Armenian soccer player. “I have to do my best to be in the first
league,” says Edgar,” it depends on me. My trainers helped me out a
lot, especially Mikael Zakaryan and President of the Soccer Federation
Ruben Hayrapetyan. I am very grateful for their help.” Edgar
Manucharyan has a positive orientation towards soccer in Armenia and as
proof of that, he brought up the game between the Armenian and
Ukrainian teams.
Edgar thinks that even though we don’t have the opportunity to
participate in the next round, our soccer players will strive for
victories. As for the consecutive losses of the Armenian soccer teams,
Edgar looks at that as natural, considering the fact that the reason
for our losses is because the other teams are much more trained. He
says: “All soccer teams have faced difficulties in the first stages,
but throughout the course of the years soccer players get the hang of
it and become professional. The change in generation always helps save
the situation. You can reach success in the world of soccer if you
dedicate yourself to playing the game. For example, millions of
legendary players play in the games of Russian and French leagues, but
we don’t have those legendary players and thus we don’t get invited to
many places. I think that we will pave a path towards Europe and that
our soccer players will have the chance to travel to Europe and play.
Then they will get a lot of experience and soccer in Armenia will be at
a professional level. Unfortunately, we can not compete with better
teams just by staying in Armenia.” Edgar has always been inspired by
Ronaldo since Ronaldo’s game is very much like Edgar’s. There is some
kind of tendency that leads soccer players to look up to other players
not so much as their readiness, but rather their style. I asked Edgar
if there are people who are involved with taking care of the image of
soccer players and if our players take care of themselves during the
games. In response he said: “Well, we Armenians are just not used to
going out into the field with our hair tied in a ponytail. The field is
not a stage for us to present ourselves in front of the other team with
a special image or appearance. It’s just that not everyone in Armenia
can show themselves that way. It is looked at differently and after
all, it’s just not nice.”