Borussia Dortmund spent $30 million on a transfer last summer for Henrikh Mkhitaryan to replace Mario Götze.

Dortmund plays Real Madrid in the Champions League quarterfinals on Wednesday.

"The first Real player that I was consciously aware of was the great Raúl. Later I watched Zinedine Zidane... He was an amazing play-maker," said Mkhitaryan.

Mkhitaryan's idol as a young footballer was Zidane.

"As a child I was always fascinated with the way Zidane played and he was a huge inspiration," said Mkhitaryan.

Mkhitaryan doesn't see his move to Dortmund as a direct replacement for Götze, who went to Bayern Munich.

"Götze is a fantastic player. But he is also a very different player to me. The people in Dortmund have never given me the impression that they measure my performance against his. They really know their football here. They have helped me settle in so well and have had so much patience with me. I hope that I can repay them in the long term with good performances, goals and assists [he so far has eight goals and nine assists in 33 league and Champions League appearances]. Borussia is a fantastic club. Even as an 11-year old in Armenia I had a BVB shirt from China. And that’s not just PR speak! I showed our director of communications the pictures a few weeks ago. Maybe my transfer to Dortmund was fate… I don’t believe in mere coincidences."