[Newmag Summer Fest] Concern of Sports Journalists: Why are there no books about Armenian athletes? (photos, video in Armenian)

Since the first year of its work, Newmag translated and published in Armenian the biographies of the most famous football players and idols of the young generation: "Ronaldo", "Messi", "Neymar", "I am Zlatan", Youri Djorkaeff ’s "Snake" and recently “Zidane’s Two Lives” books. According to the moderator of the meeting, journalist Varvara Hayrapetyan, you read each of the books in one breath and with great interest. "I read all the books and when the first book was published I immediately decided to read it. It is very easy to read in Armenian, because the translation is perfect. I liked Zlatan's book the most, because he himself is a unique football player. "

Before Newmag's initiative, football fans and readers read about athletes mainly in Russian. The life and biography of famous football players are available to everyone through our publishing house. The participants of the discussion note that the language and the quality printing contribute to the wider interest in these books. 

How to get youngsters engaged in sports and at the same time make reading an integral part of their day. Sports commentator Eduard Kalantaryan has a vivid answer for this: the young generation should read more books. For instance, he decided to bring his son closer to sports and books at an early age; they had come to the Newmag Summer Fest together.

Another question is how to write attractive books dedicated to Armenian sports, publish and sell them in Armenia? The speakers have a common response to this debatable question. Mediamax sports correspondent Hasmik Babayan assures that it is very difficult to persuade an Armenian athlete to talk about himself. “It seems that journalists should have no problem interviewing and opening up the interviewee. However, our athletes do not like to talk, especially about themselves. They don’t like to have open and honest conversations like Messi and Ronaldo.”

Participants of this panel discussion believe that many Armenian athletes can appear on the cover of the book. However, none of them are ready for sincere confessions at this moment. In the end, the participants of the discussion advised to read sports books for the last days of summer. The selection of Newmag is large, the most popular books have been republished and are available both on our website and in all bookstores.