For some, Arsenal versus Paris Saint-Germain may seem like a standard Champions League tie. For Mikel Arteta, however, it will spark memories of a special time when he was first embarking on his professional playing career with the help of a Brazilian roommate in his early twenties named Ronaldo de Assis Moreira.
He is more commonly known as Ronaldinho.
Arteta had already been in Paris for six months when Ronaldinho arrived in the summer of 2001. Arteta began his career at Barcelona but had Pep Guardiola, Emmanuel Petit, Xavi and Thiago Motta as midfield competition. A teenage Arteta moved on loan to PSG, where he would share a dressing room with Jay-Jay Okocha, Mauricio Pochettino, Gabriel Heinze and Nicolas Anelka.
“It was (terrifying) for me and my family,” Arteta recalls with a laugh. “We were in Barcelona when we got the phone call, ‘You need to pack your bags and fly to Paris, now’. I was 18 years old, had not played any professional football and you look at those names. ‘Are they sure?’
“But you get there and Luis Fernandez was the manager, he was the one that believed in me. That is what you need, someone to give you the chance and to be surrounded by the right individuals, that I was very lucky to have.
“They protected me like a son. It was the perfect environment for me, to give me the chance, to see what I was capable of doing. It was an amazing experience.”
Arteta was full of praise for Luis Fernandez (left) (Patrick Hertzog/AFP via Getty Images)
Arteta’s final appearance for Barcelona B came against Burriana in the Segunda Division on January 28 2001. A mere two and a half weeks later, on Valentine’s Day, he was making his first start for Paris Saint-Germain away at AC Milan.
“I was in the tunnel… it was Berlusconi, Maldini, Pirlo, Shevchenko,” he adds. “I was looking, they were all like this [holds his hand up high]. I was like ‘Really?’ I was thrown to the lions, really, in Rome. But it turned out to be a really good match, which I really enjoyed. It was an unbelievable night.”
Arteta can be forgiven for mixing up his Italian cities here. Gladiator is his favourite film, so it was somewhat fitting that his Champions League debut came at the coliseum that is the San Siro — a stadium he will return to when managing Arsenal against Inter Milan in November.
The former midfielder turned 19 the following month and ended his first half-season in Paris with 11 senior appearances. In 2001-02, he made 42 appearances, 25 in the league, where he often had Heinze and Pochettino behind him with Ronaldinho and Okocha ahead.
“I had to do all the defending because I had Ronaldinho and Okocha in front of me. Imagine!” he says. “It was super, almost unreal. It was a dream for me. I was so blessed and I had so much energy at that time. I couldn’t waste that opportunity — I enjoyed every minute of it.
“We (Ronaldinho and I) were roommates for a year and a half. I could not see him like this (a football legend) at the time, obviously, but he was a huge talent. He was coming from Brazil. He didn’t have a work permit so he had to wait for a couple of months. But he’s the only player that I have seen in history that could transform, by himself, two clubs.
“He did it in Paris, he transformed [them]. He went to Barcelona in one of the worst moments and transformed [them]. He had an aura, an energy, a smile on his face … it was impossible to be next to him and be in a bad mood.
“I never saw a talent like this. In training, in every drill, it was like: How is this possible? Physically, it’s impossible to do certain things. It was unbelievable to play with him.”
PSG was Ronaldinho’s launchpad into European football. He cost the French club just €5million from Gremio and was sold to Barcelona for €30million two seasons later. While PSG’s impact on Ronaldinho became apparent almost immediately, the club’s effect on Arteta was more long-lasting.
The 42-year-old has spoken about the influence Pochettino had on him as a coach before, but on what ignited thoughts of management that early in his career, he adds: “Well with Luis, he was a really brave manager. To believe in someone so young (Arteta himself) who was never proven at that level when your job is at stake, you need something special.
“He always spoke about it, when you have the opportunity to give an opportunity to others, you have to do it.
Arteta playing for PSG against AC Milan (Tony Marshall/EMPICS via Getty Images)
“The other inspirations were Pochettino and Heinze, those two were next to me all the time, behind me, and they were guiding me in everything I had to do in my professional life, how I had to understand the game and they were inspirational to me.”
The point made on Fernandez appears to be the most timely. Arteta turned to academy players often in September, giving four their first starts and two more debuts off the bench against Bolton Wanderers last week.
On whether Fernandez’s bravery with him has shaped the way he is dealing with this crop of youngsters, Arteta says. “What made that experience successful, (I) try to provide that. Because it’s not what I need, it’s what the boys need.
“The first thing they need, on top of the manager, is the respect of their team-mates. The team-mates look at them (like), ‘He’s one of our own’ and he’s gonna respond. They’ve got it now and that’s very important.
“I think the manager has a responsibility in the way that he communicates with that player and the decision he makes in order for the rest to understand he is one of us and then they have to shine and go through the experiences and move on.”
This has been seen in how Arteta has spoken publicly about Ethan Nwaneri and Myles Lewis-Skelly, particularly this calendar year.
The Spaniard admitted that it was the players who pestered him to bring on Nwaneri in the 6-0 win over West Ham in February, and their respect for the 17-year-old could be seen in how often they fed him the ball. Arteta’s recent comments about both Nwaneri and Lewis-Skelly after their cameos against Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City also spoke to the perception of both as characters off the pitch as well as on it.
Nwaneri impressed against Leicester on the weekend. As someone who has experienced how unexpected these moments can be very early in a player’s career, going from playing in front of a few thousand to the San Siro in a matter of weeks, he will understand what Arsenal’s young talent have gone through of late.
Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly and co may not be rooming with Ronaldinho but the aim will be for members of this Arsenal squad to become footballing icons in their own right under Arteta.
(Top photo: Olivier Morin/AFP via Getty Images)