Limited resources, unlimited dreams: Zhanna Mkhitaryan’s football journey
“My favorite football player is Messi—after Vigen,” says footballer Zhanna Mkhitaryan.
Vigen is her older brother—and the reason she started playing football in the first place.
18-year-old Zhanna grew up in Ddmashen, a village in the Sevan community of Armenia’s Gegharkunik province. At just 16, she created a football team in her village. Today, she coaches 40 boys, aged 7 to 14, and is searching for funding to help them compete more regularly. For now, the players and their families cover transportation and other expenses themselves.
“For our first competition, we had a team of 45 people and trained with only three balls,” Zhanna recalled. “It was a championship organized by the Gagarin Project. We won. As a reward, they gave us football goals for our field.”
The team trains on the village football field until winter weather forces a pause.
Zhanna’s transition from player to coach came after a series of injuries. But long before that, she was making a mark on the field, playing for one of Armenia’s top clubs.
Started as a player…
There are at least two surprising and remarkable facts about Zhanna. First, she has defied all the stereotypes that exist in villages around girls playing sports—especially football. And second, she began coaching children at just 16 years old.
Let’s start from the beginning.
Zhanna started playing football at the age of 13, training alongside her brother at the Sevan city sports school. She eventually moved on to various clubs across Armenia. At school, she often faced resistance when she wanted to play during physical education class.
“When we’d decide to play football, the boys in class always assumed the girls wouldn’t want to. I would protest—but the sad thing was, the other girls really didn’t want to play,” she explained.
So, Zhanna began training on her own initiative and her parents did not object.
“At first, no one believed I was serious,” she recalled. “I’d hear things like, ‘She’ll go a couple of times and quit,’ or ‘Football? Come on,’ or ‘Girls can’t play.’ But later, when they heard about my achievements, they were surprised.”
She managed to balance school and football training—even studying at the ‘Armat’ engineering lab. After classes, she would travel to Sevan for practice.
“One day, my coach told me there’d be a school tournament. I was always an active kid. We didn’t know it was actually a professional league between football teams. Once you join a league, you can’t just quit—you have to commit. So, I stayed in football. When you want something badly enough, it works out. We really wanted to win. And we did—by winning every match, we became champions.”
At 14, just six months after enrolling in sports school, Zhanna was invited to the Football Federation of Armenia, where she participated in training camps. She was selected for the national team squad heading to Croatia—and even received her visa. But before the trip, she got injured and could not go.
Still, her talent was evident and caught the eye of FC Urartu, one of Armenia’s top clubs. They offered her a chance to play in the country’s Premier League.
She turned them down.
“I did not fully think through the opportunities I might be passing up,” she explained. “I went back to train in Sevan. I understood that for girls in our area, playing sports—especially football—was still rare. If I left, the other girls would not be able to continue; the team would fall apart. So, I stayed.
When asked whether she ever regretted not joining FC Urartu, Zhanna responded, “I don’t regret it. I take lessons from every situation. I have not regretted it because I was able to be useful in Sevan. Maybe I would have, if I had not made a difference. But maybe this is how it was meant to be.”
After leaving Sevan, she was offered a place on the team she had dreamed of joining since childhood.
One day, she got a call: “Zhanna jan, would you like to play for FC Pyunik?”
Her answer: “Of course!”
…then became a coach
Zhanna’s path from athlete to coach has been shaped by injuries, determination, willpower and choice.
“I got my first knee injury during a friendly match against FC Noah,” she said. “The second one was more serious—a torn tendon. After that injury, the doctor advised me to avoid athletic activity. The moment I realized I was injured, I already knew what I was going to hear from the doctor. I started screaming. My coach asked why I was yelling and which part hurt, but I was not screaming from pain—I was screaming because I knew I might never be able to play again.”
She played just two months with Pyunik before stepping away.
But she did not walk away from football.
After several recurring injuries and being told by her doctor that she could no longer play, she decided to form her own football team. “I wanted the team to be in my village,” she explained. “I could feel the motivation, energy and love for football in the kids. So, I started a team—this way, I’d stay connected to football and could pass on what I knew.”
She announced her plans at school. “I thought maybe not even five kids would sign up. I mean, how could students take another student seriously as a coach? But by the end of the day, over 40 kids had registered—including a few girls. I really wanted to form a girls’ team too, but that didn’t work out. Eventually, all five girls dropped out. Now, I coach boys ages 7 to 14.”
Zhanna is constantly striving to improve. This summer, she will participate in the Football Federation of Armenia’s licensing course for coaches. Once certified, she will continue as a professional coach.
“I’ve been waiting for this moment since I was 16,” she shared. “And when you’ve been an athlete before becoming a coach—it’s a big advantage. You understand what it is like to walk in the player’s shoes.”
All photos are from Zhanna Mkrtchyan’s personal archive
