{"id":703230,"date":"2026-05-30T06:39:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:39:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703230\/"},"modified":"2026-05-30T06:39:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-30T06:39:09","slug":"he-was-alive-you-saw-it-in-his-eyes-inside-the-years-that-shaped-mikel-arteta-mikel-arteta","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/703230\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018He was alive \u2013 you saw it in his eyes\u2019: inside the years that shaped Mikel Arteta | Mikel Arteta"},"content":{"rendered":"

The way Santi Cazorla tells it, rolling about laughing, Mikel Arteta may just be the worst person you could ever wish to watch a match with. Which is why he knew his friend would be a coach<\/a> and why he told him to go away and become one, convinced great things were coming. \u201cWhen we were injured at Arsenal, we used to meet at home for games, and he would grab the remote and pause it,\u201d Cazorla recalls. \u201cI would say: \u2018What are you stopping it for?\u2019 He would say: \u2018No, go back, go back,\u2019 rewind it 30 seconds, and then ask: \u2018What do you see?\u2019 I would say: \u2018I see a paused screen. I don\u2019t see anything!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

So Arteta would explain. \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t you think this player is badly positioned? \u2026 If he goes a bit deeper, this space opens up \u2026 if the pivot goes there, this happens \u2026 that line should be deeper \u2026\u2019 I would look at him and think: \u2018What\u2019s with this guy?\u2019\u201d Cazorla continues, still cracking up. \u201cHe was a coach already. All game, every game: pausing, rewinding. The match is finished and we\u2019re only in the 35th minute. \u2018Do you see it?\u2019 \u2018Yes, yes, you\u2019re right, now come on, press play.\u2019 But I didn\u2019t see it. I love football, I can watch it all day, but I don\u2019t notice those things. Mikel does. I think it\u2019s a gift.\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in Gipuzkoa, the smallest province in Spain and an outlier producing a quantity of elite managers that invites an investigation<\/a>, Arteta was always a bit different; everyone says so. Which isn\u2019t to say that those who shared his first steps saw what Cazorla did, still less the coach who leads Arsenal into the Champions League final. Fond though they are, and there is warmth in every word, most didn\u2019t see a coach just yet, but they saw something. Not talent exactly, although that too, but something else a little deeper, lasting.<\/p>\n

\u201cMikel caught your attention very young,\u201d Jon Ayerbe says. \u201cThe word I\u2019d use is alive; you saw it in his eyes. He grasped everything fast, had character and was so competitive. Give him the ball, he\u2019ll find a solution. And he was a year younger than us, eh.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, he was the most intelligent,\u201d \u00c1lvaro Parra adds. Mikel Yanguas says: \u201cYou looked at him and thought: \u2018Bloody hell, he\u2019s got something special. If anyone makes it, it\u2019s him.\u2019 He had personality, ambition.\u201d Ayerbe, Parra and Yanguas played with Arteta at Antiguoko, a youth club in San Sebasti\u00e1n that took on professional academies and won<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta could have pursued a career in tennis if it were not for Antiguoko\u2019s coach Roberto Montiel (pictured top left, next to Arteta).<\/p>\n

Arteta was good enough at tennis to have pursued a different path, his father making him choose his sport, and Antiguoko\u2019s former coach Roberto Montiel enjoys recounting an Arteta goal against Real Sociedad, all cheek and technique, that reminds him of Lionel Messi. Arteta was two-footed and tiny then, a No 10 who later became a No 4, and \u201ca born sportsman\u201d, Montiel says. He was dedicated and smart, too. \u201cHe was always clear he would make it and sacrificed his life for it,\u201d Parra says. \u201cHe went to Barcelona, leaving everything behind. And later he turned down lucrative offers \u2013 Dubai, Qatar, the US \u2013 to work with Guardiola at Man City because it was the right step.\u201d<\/p>\n

At 14, Arteta had begun training at Athletic Club, 100km west along the AP-8. There, one of his coaches was the future Athletic, Eibar, Sevilla and Olympiakos manager Jos\u00e9 Luis Mendilibar<\/a>, who was struck by this kid that never lost the ball and always played with clarity and sense. \u201cWhat you could imagine, thinking about it now, was that someone with that intelligence and understanding would also develop an ability to explain it to others, so they could understand too,\u201d Mendilibar wrote later<\/a>. That sentiment is echoed by Luis Fern\u00e1ndez, the coach who signed an 18-year-old Arteta for Paris Saint-Germain in 2001. \u201cWhen you told him what you wanted, he did it first time,\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez says.<\/p>\n

By then, Barcelona had shaped him too, the first formative experience away from home. \u201cIt was 1997,\u201d Yanguas recalls. \u201cSomeone saw us representing Gipuzkoa at an Easter tournament and invited us to a trial at Barcelona. We stayed near Pedralbes and at the end they said yes to the three of us: me, Mikel and Jon \u00c1lvarez. We left that summer: 17 August, the day of San Sebasti\u00e1n\u2019s fiestas, so I remember it well.\u201d<\/p>\n

They moved into La Masia, the traditional Catalan farmhouse alongside the Camp Nou that was Barcelona\u2019s spiritual home<\/a> and an actual home to 32 boys aged 11 to 18, three or four of whom were basketball players. Andr\u00e9s Iniesta<\/a>, Carles Puyol and Iv\u00e1n de la Pe\u00f1a were among them. Pepe Reina would become one of Arteta\u2019s closest friends. Each dorm had four bunks, a couple of camp beds sometimes squeezed in too. Through the window they could see the pitch<\/a> where Bobby Robson\u2019s team trained. Well, part of it: a screen covered half.<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta is said to have grasped instructions quickly as a young player. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just us, the cooks, the security guard and one guy overseeing everything,\u201d says Roberto Trashorras, who became close to Arteta. \u201cIt\u2019s totally different nowadays. We sorted things out among ourselves. Because we were alone, we looked after each other. There were no mobiles. I remember queueing at midnight to ring home from the payphone, Puyol and De la Pe\u00f1a ahead of me. We were teenagers, so there\u2019d be the usual messing about: jokes, water bombs. Mikel was funny, extroverted, but we were the victims usually \u2026 until you get a bit older and it\u2019s your turn.\u201d<\/p>\n

A bus took them to school \u2013 parents chose between three options \u2013 they would train and then \u2026 well, not much, Yanguas says. \u201cWe would go to [the department store] El Corte Ingl\u00e9s; we were from San Sebasti\u00e1n, a small city, and we didn\u2019t have an El Corte Ingl\u00e9s there. Or we\u2019d go to the cinema. I remember seeing Titanic with Mikel, Victor Vald\u00e9s, Fernando Macedo. At weekends your parents would come.\u201d<\/p>\n

They were 15 and, looking back, Yanguas admits he wasn\u2019t ready. Although that cadete (under-16) team were national champions, he returned to San Sebasti\u00e1n at the end of the first year. \u201cIt was hard for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI think about it now and I was an introvert. Mikel was different, better prepared: more outgoing, more adaptable, better at relating. Maybe inside he was struggling but we saw someone who handled it very well. On the pitch too: he would demand the ball. I thought it was natural then but I coach now and realise it\u2019s not. No one offers, no one asks for the ball. Mikel did constantly. It\u2019s hard to do that: \u2018Give it to me, I\u2019ll sort this.\u2019 He was surrounded by great players but had the confidence and self assurance to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mikel Arteta (back row, fourth from right) celebrates a title win with Barcelona teammates including Mikel Yanguas (back row, second from left). Photograph: No credit<\/p>\n

Jofre Mateu was two years older than Arteta, with whom he would play in the B team, and had already made a first-team appearance. \u201cMikel used to laugh about his hair. He said he had \u2018bull\u2019s hair\u2019: so hard and it didn\u2019t move. But, honestly, the thing I most remember is that one day he took my car when he was learning or recently passed and crashed it into the Masia wall.\u201d Jofre laughs. \u201cIt was three metres, impossible to crash. Impossible. And he goes: \u2018Nah, nah, relax, I-don\u2019t-know-what.\u2019 He puts his arm on the window, looks back to reverse, but he\u2019s putting it in first. \u2018Yeah, I think you need more lessons. You can take taxis from now on.\u2019 My car was only two months old: a VW Golf.\u201d<\/p>\n

Which raises an obvious question: are you stupid? \u201cTotally,\u201d Jofre says. But, actually, handing over the keys wasn\u2019t a risk: if anything defined Arteta, he says, it was how sensible he was. \u201cHe wasn\u2019t there to piss about, he was there to do the right thing,\u201d Jofre says. \u201cHe was super-responsible, he had something.\u201d<\/p>\n

In fact, another scene defines Arteta better. \u201cThiago Motta was hot-headed and in a training session he got in a fight, which wasn\u2019t unusual,\u201d Jofre says. \u201cI don\u2019t remember who with, but it wasn\u2019t Mikel, yet he steps in: \u2018Thiago, man, you\u2019re teammates: you can\u2019t do this.\u2019 I remember it because Mikel didn\u2019t really have the \u2018weight\u2019 to do that. It would be like Marc Bernal standing up to, say, Gavi now. He didn\u2019t do it in an ugly way, but he did it. Clearly, firmly. And we just all stopped. Like: \u2018Ol\u00e9 tus huevos [Good on ya].\u2019 I think that said something about him: he wasn\u2019t the star, but he\u2019s not going to let that happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"MikelMikel Arteta and his Antiguoko teammates on tour. <\/p>\n

La Masia was a footballing education, entirely new. \u201cThe players who arrive are the best in their teams but Barcelona make you think about tactics, space in a way that\u2019s not normal,\u201d says Luis Carri\u00f3n, a Barcelona B teammate. \u201cAt Antiguoko, Mikel would have had the ball all the time; here he had to wait, occupy the right space. By standing still, you see a solution, a way out. They\u2019d explain concepts \u2013 third man, triangles, final line \u2013 but it wasn\u2019t \u2018classes\u2019, more repetition: passing drills every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trashorras says: \u201cMikel was a dribbler, arriving in the area, but he learned to play one, two touches, not lose his position. One of the things that most struck me when I first got there is they would say: \u2018Don\u2019t go looking for the ball, the ball will come to you.\u2019 \u2018Yeah, but, it\u2019s just there, I can \u2026\u2019 \u2018No, no, no. Don\u2019t invade someone else\u2019s space.\u2019 It can be hard to adapt but Mikel was sharp. It\u2019s really, genuinely different. Pffff, it\u2019s like a religion. And then when you leave it\u2019s different too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that Barcelona\u2019s creed was Arteta\u2019s only faith. There is a simple reason why he didn\u2019t make it in Catalonia, or two of them \u2013 Xavi Hern\u00e1ndez and Iniesta<\/a> \u2013 but there was a world out there, ideas and character shaped across four countries, experiences in Spain, France, Scotland and England. \u201cWhen I became PSG coach I asked for Mikel because I watched him in the juvenil [under-19s],\u201d Fern\u00e1ndez says. \u201cI followed Johan Cruyff\u2019s ideas, the importance of the pivot, loved Pep Guardiola and wanted a player of that type.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the pitch you see Mikel\u2019s intelligence, his understanding and, for sure, that comes out later when he becomes a coach. He had the perfect attitude to coach: professionalism. He was responsible, listened, learned and you didn\u2019t need to keep telling him. He was an example for everyone. I admire him. I\u2019m sensitive and when I see him and Gabi [Heinze], his very good friend in Paris, it makes me so happy. If you had asked me then if he would be a coach, I\u2019d have said: \u2018No.\u2019 He wasn\u2019t: \u2018Do this, do that.\u2019 I think he learned with Pep. I went to see him do a session and thought: \u2018Bloody hell, look at Mikel.\u2019 But it was always in him.\u201d<\/p>\n

It just had to come out. \u201cHe was a kid with personality: polite, very professional for his age,\u201d Carri\u00f3n says. \u201cA coach? You never know, but he watched a lot of football. I ran into him recently and we chatted about football; it\u2019s always football.\u201d With time, Yanguas suggests, you learn to express, understand and analyse the spaces you saw naturally, and Arteta always saw those. Focus and passion came as standard. Jofre, asked if he saw a coach in Arteta, replies: \u201cZero. But if you asked me about Xavi<\/a>, I would have said zero. Luis Enrique, zero. Guardiola \u2026 OK, yes. But we were kids still, teenagers at La Masia more interested in the next game, some girl or where we\u2019re going on Saturday.\u201d Trashorras agrees: \u201cWith Pep, you saw it<\/a>; with Mikel I couldn\u2019t claim to have done, but you can\u2019t argue with what he\u2019s done.\u201d In part because Pep did see it.<\/p>\n

Quick GuidePSG v Arsenal: head-to-head, history and how to watchShow<\/p>\n

Arsenal and Paris Saint-Germain will face each other for the eighth time in all competitions, with their head-to-head record even at two wins each, plus three draws. PSG have won the last two encounters: both legs of last season\u2019s semi-final.<\/p>\n

The Gunners are undefeated in this season\u2019s Champions League, winning all eight games during the league phase, then drawing three and winning three of their six legs in the knockout rounds. PSG lost twice during the league phase before going undefeated in their six knockout fixtures, a run that included four victories against English opposition: two against Chelsea in the last 16 and two against Liverpool in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n

This will be the first major European final between clubs from France and England and the fourth European Cup final between clubs from two different capital cities, after Benfica v Real Madrid (1962), Real Madrid v Partizan Belgrade (1966) and Ajax v Panathinaikos (1971).<\/p>\n

Arsenal are seeking to become the seventh English club to win the European Cup after Manchester United, Liverpool, Nottingham Forest, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Manchester City, and aiming to win a third European trophy after the Fairs Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners\u2019 Cup in 1994.<\/p>\n

An Arsenal victory would mean English clubs claiming every major European trophy this season, after Aston Villa\u2019s victory in the Europa League and Crystal Palace\u2019s success in the Conference League. The last time English clubs had a clean sweep of European honours in a single season was in 2018-19, when Liverpool won the Champions League and Chelsea won the Europa League.<\/p>\n

Budapest is hosting a Champions League final for the first time. The city, and the Puskas Arena specifically, hosted the 2023 Europa League final between Sevilla and Roma and the 2020 Super Cup between Bayern Munich and\u00a0Sevilla.<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s match will be the first Champions League final not broadcast free-to-air in the UK, after TNT Sports decided to make it available to subscribers only. This led to Keir Starmer, the prime minster and Arsenal fan, writing to the broadcaster, urging them to reconsider their decision. As yet, TNT has not backed down.<\/p>\n

Thank you for your feedback.<\/p>\n

And so, via Paris, Glasgow and Liverpool to Santi\u2019s sofa in London, an offer and a new era, the other Arteta that was always inside somewhere. \u201cWe confided in each other; he was the captain, always looked after me and my family and helped so much during my injury<\/a>,<\/a>\u201d Cazorla recalls. \u201cHe said: \u2018What should I do, Santi? Keep playing, which I like most, or take the opportunity as Pep\u2019s assistant?\u2019 I love playing but there\u2019s no better place to start coaching and I have a good relationship with him.\u2019 I said: \u2018Mikel, if that\u2019s what moves you, go for it.\u2019 It\u2019s a difficult step but I was sure it would work. I would watch him pausing games and think: this guy is already a coach. I\u2019d tell him: \u2018You\u2019re thinking beyond what a player does.\u2019 And he would say: \u2018Yeah, I see things that make me think I should be a coach. I feel that I am.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The way Santi Cazorla tells it, rolling about laughing, Mikel Arteta may just be the worst person you…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":703231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,561,82],"class_list":["post-703230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=703230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/703230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/703231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=703230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=703230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=703230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}