Shakhtar's Mkhitaryan collects Armenia award again

FC Shakhtar Donetsk's attacking midfielder Henrikh Mkhitaryan has been voted Armenian player of the year for the third time.

In a poll of Football Federation of Armenia (FFA) executive committee members, club presidents and head coaches and media, Mkhitaryan earned 296 points to finish ahead of his international team-mates Yura Movsisyan (90 votes), who recently moved to FC Spartak Moskva, and midfielder Aras Özbiliz (58) of FC Kuban Krasnodar. Mkhitaryan, who collected the Golden Boot award from FFA president Ruben Hayrapetyan, also won the poll in 2009 and 2011.

"I am proud that I play for Armenia and that I've been voted my country's best player," he told UEFA.com. "Every player dreams of recognition in his homeland. Such high trust has to be justified with deeds not with words, and a player's deed is his football. This season is going great for me but I am not going to stop. This is just the first step on the way to success."

Armenia's Vardan Minasyan was voted coach of the year ahead of FC Shirak's Vardan Bichakhchyan and Zsolt Hornyák, who is in charge at FC Mika.