Vahan Bichakhchyan: I got very attached to Pogon, fans, city, everyone

By Lusine Shahbazyan

I got very attached to Pogon, the fans, the city, everyone. I feel complete here. Pogon was definitely the right move for me. Vahan Bichakhchyan, a midfielder of the Armenian national football team and Poland’s Pogon Szczecin, from Gyumri, said this in an interview with the NEWS.am Sport from Poland.

For almost two years now, the midfielder of the Armenian national team has been “shining” at Pogon, regularly standing out with goals, assists, and receiving the title of the “best.” Thus, in September, Bichakhchyan was named the footballer of the month at Pogon Szczecin.

On October 28, in the 19th round of the top Polish football league, the Ekstraklasa, Pogon won 2-1 at home against Jagiellonia Bialystok. Bichakhchyan played in the game and was subbed off in the 77th minute. After the 13th round, Pogon are fourth in the current standings, and 4 points behind the leaders.

The favorite of Armenian and Polish fans is still not thinking about changing his club because he loves the Poles, Poland, and Pogon very much.

Vahan, what did Pogon change in your sports career? What kind of growth have you achieved for yourself? Are you satisfied with the results you regularly record?

Pogon was definitely the right move for me, as the Polish league is very strong. The competition between the teams here is very high. Top football players are playing. Everything is at a high level, equal to European football; the league, the media, the fans, the atmosphere of every game. Our or other teams' games always take place in crowded stadiums, and we, on our part, try to provide an interesting and spectacular game.

As for this year's league, we had a good start, then we had a painful defeat, after which the team started having bad games, bad results. We could not win 4-5 games in a row. After the break due to the matches of the national teams, we came back stronger. We saw a completely transformed Pogo. We won four games. Another painful defeat from Legia followed, after which we beat our two main rivals, Lech and Krakow. These two teams are strong rivals for our fans and our city. Now the league in Poland is at such a level that you can't say who will beat whom. At the moment, the teams are equal; there can be surprises in every game. We are preparing seriously so that we can have victories in the future, too.

Have you fully integrated into Pogon, Polish life?

Yes, fully. Soon, the second year in Pogon will end, but I have the impression that I have been in this club and this country for a very long time. It is a very good team, the staff, guys are good, most importantly, there are very good people gathered in our team.

I got very attached to Pogon, the fans, the city, everyone. I feel complete here. I am trying to do everything in order to be able to return the trust and love towards me to the club, the fans.

I also loved Poland. It is an amazing country; it has wonderful sights, beautiful cities. People are very warm, hospitable. The only problem is that the cities are very big and it takes a long time to go from one city to another. It's interesting to live here. The country is absolutely worth to visit it:

You are very popular with Polish fans. Each of your goals is received by them with great joy, chants and a song dedicated to you. How much does that love help you on the pitch?

Their love is mutual, and it really helps me a lot on the pitch. I am happy to have such fans, to see how they rejoice after every goal, how they celebrate, sing. They come to the stadium to watch exciting football, see goals, and celebrate a victory. All this is accountable.

Fans are very demanding. No matter how many series of unsuccessful games and defeats our team has, they never abandon us. They are always with us whether we are playing at home or away. And as I said, Poland is not a small country, and it is not so easy to go from one city to another, but they are coming, even if we had painful defeats in the previous games. It is impossible not to appreciate this love and dedication and not try to make them happy. They do everything to be by our side even if they have to travel 5, 10 hours. This attitude is a great responsibility for us. We play, we fight for them.

Polish fans support the Polish national team in the same way. The team's stadium is located in Warsaw. The stadium accommodates 52-53 thousand spectators, and it is just jam-packed during the matches.

In fact, Poland is distinguished by its legions of fans. Not only Pogon, other teams also have a lot of fans. Poles are big fans of football. It is thanks to the fans that a very good competition has been created in our league. There is a great rivalry between the fans, too, which makes every match even more beautiful.

What are your plans at Pogon? Are you thinking about changing clubs or extending your contract?

There is still no clarity in that regard. My contract expires in 2025. Let's see what happens next. I'm not thinking in that direction yet.

Follow NEWS.am SPORT on Facebook, Twitter and Telegram