Arsenal stumbled upon a gem when they recruited Mikel Arteta from Everton in 2011, unaware of his potential. However, Arteta’s journey as a player could have taken a different turn.
He excelled under David Moyes at Everton, and now he looks to Moyes to guide his Arsenal team to a Premier League victory this season.
The former midfielder joined Everton from Real Sociedad on loan, but if he hadn’t made one earlier transfer, he would not have made it to the Premier League.
The Spaniard was a member of Barcelona’s La Masia academy, but he never made a senior appearance for the club, and he has recently regretted that he was unable to realise his ambition of playing for the Blaugrana.
Mikel Arteta shares his prior desire of playing for Barcelona
In an interview with the BBC, Arteta discussed the process of moving to Paris Saint-Germain from Barcelona.
“I was 17 years old, and it was in the middle of the season. I was playing with the Barcelona B-team already, which at that time, was very competitive already, and I got a phone call from my agent,” he stated.
“I said listen, Luis Fernandez is the coach of PSG. Luis wanted to take me to Athletic Bilbao about a year or two before, and at 16, he wanted to take me to the first team at Athletic Bilbao.
“He said ‘if you come there now, you’re going to play with me,’ and I was like 16 years old, and I wanted to stay in Barcelona. When he was named the manager at PSG, he said ‘yeah come and you’re going to play for me.’
“At the time they had (Nicolas) Anelka, Ronaldinho, (Jay-Jay) Okocha, (Mauricio) Pochettino, Frederic Dehu.
“It was a team of stars, and I said ‘I haven’t played any professional football yet’ and he just said on the phone ‘trust me, I believe in you; so we took the bags and we went to Paris.
“It was a difficult decision, because my dream was to play for Barcelona, but I think at the time, I had to be very realistic. Pep (Guardiola) was in his prime, and Xavi Hernandez was not even playing at the time.
“I said ‘I know I don’t have the chance at the moment, so I need to maybe try a different path and experience’ then we made the call and we moved to Paris.”
How PSG loan spell impacted Mikel Arteta’s career
Arteta only played for PSG for one season before joining Rangers, but his time in Paris taught him valuable skills that he still applies today.
His friendship with Pochettino is one he values to this day, and he recently lauded his old teammate, who now manages Chelsea.
Arteta also played with Gabriel Heinze, who went on to play for Manchester United and Real Madrid. Heinze has been identified as a prospective candidate to join Arsenal’s coaching staff in order to reconnect with Arteta.
PSG wanted to keep Arteta following a solid season as a youngster, but he left to play for Rangers in Scotland, where he developed before returning to Spain to play for Real Sociedad.
Without his loan to PSG, and the difficult decision of leaving Barcelona, Arteta may not have followed the path which eventually took him to Arsenal, and which then saw him win trophies as a captain, before returning to help revive the sleeping giant as a manager.
