Henrikh Mkhitaryan on taking massive pay cut to join A.S. Roma: “It was a great opportunity for me”

For some people in life, happiness is more important than money. Count Henrikh Mkhitaryan as one of those guys.

In case you haven’t heard, the 30-year old Armenian midfielder shocked the football world by joining As Roma in a loan deal from Arsenal worth a mere 3 million euros with the possibility of 1 million euros in bonuses.

To put that into perspective, he earned £9,360,000 last season, and was set to make the same amount of annual salary if he stuck with the English club this time around. However, his lack of fit with the club and reduction of playing time made him realize he needed to make a change, regardless of money implications.

“I got a call from my agent and I wanted to come, because it was a great opportunity for me. I didn’t even have a discussion with my agent about money.” said Mkhitaryan.

 I was not fitting so well in English football, so I think a change was good. … The last month at Arsenal I was not getting pleasure, so that’s why I said it was better to come to Roma and to get happy and to get the pleasure from playing football again.”

He had scored nine goals in 58 combined appearances with the Gunners in the past two-plus seasons.