In January 2001 Mikel Arteta left Barcelona for Paris St-Germain in a move that would ultimately help transform one of the most intelligent midfielders of his generation into one of the game’s top coaches.
It was where he first displayed the leadership qualities that have seen him progress to Arsenal manager and he will welcome PSG to Emirates Stadium on Tuesday in the Champions League.
The 18-year-old Arteta, faced with the impossible task of usurping the likes of Pep Guardiola, French World Cup winner Emmanuel Petit, Dutch international Phillip Cocu and Xavi Hernandez in Barcelona’s star-studded midfield, had moved to the French capital on an 18-month loan deal.
PSG were yet to become French football’s dominant force but had progressed to the second group stage of the Champions League and boasted several big names of their own, including Jay-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka and Mauricio Pochettino.
A young Brazilian by the name of Ronaldinho would join the club from Gremio later that year.
Arteta barely spoke any French, but a small contingent of Spanish speakers helped him settle quickly into life in Ligue 1 and despite his tender years, the teenager made a big impression at the Parc des Princes.
‘He had the football brain’
One of the first players to take Arteta under his wing was Pochettino, who the Spaniard has since described as his “big brother” and “football father”.
The Argentine, 10 years his senior, also arrived in January 2001 after leaving La Liga side Espanyol and struck up a close bond with his new team-mate as they shared a hotel for the first three months of their time in Paris.
Arteta’s leadership skills, according to Pochettino, were apparent from the outset.
“He was already a coach,” he said of his former PSG colleague in 2023. “He was giving advice to me and the others. [I’d] say ‘wow!’ – the character, the personality, the charisma. He already had the football brain.”
Arteta was tasked by manager Luis Fernandez – who had already tried to sign the teenager while in charge of Athletic Bilbao – with orchestrating play from a deep-lying midfield position, a role he fulfilled with a confidence and maturity that belied his age.
“Fernandez asked him to play simply and help provide a platform for more creative talents like Okocha, and he carried it out brilliantly,” French football expert Matt Spiro told BBC Sport.
“Arteta was a quiet man but already displayed the steely determination we see in him today. Like most Barcelona players he was technically excellent, but the most surprising and impressive aspect of his game, given his age, was his tactical awareness.”
Arteta made 11 appearances before the end of the campaign, scoring his first PSG goal in a 2-2 draw with Lille on the season’s penultimate weekend. Despite his fine start, however, Fernandez’s side ended that term in inauspicious fashion.
After losing 4-0 to Auxerre in the French Cup fourth round – Arteta’s debut for the club – they finished bottom of their second-round group in the Champions League and only narrowly clinched a top-half finish on the final day of the season
