Mikel Arteta lifts lid on rooming with Ronaldinho at PSG - 'How is this possible?!'
The Arsenal manager was a callow 18-year-old when he was shipped out on loan to the French capital from Barcelona back in 2001, and he comes face-to-face with them again on Tuesday
by Mike Walters · The MirrorMikel Arteta will always be indebted to Paris Saint-Germain for his first taste of professional football - and the unforgettable experience of being Ronaldinho’s room-mate.
The Arsenal manager was a callow 18-year-old when he was shipped out on loan to the French capital from Barcelona back in 2001. At the Emirates on Tuesday Arteta hopes to repay PSG for their hospitality and ruffle the entente cordiale with a statement win in the Champions League.
But he remains grateful for the fast-track to first-team experience in a side captained by future Tottenham boss Mauricio Pochettino and the cultural crash course of rooming with a rising Brazilian superstar.
Although Ronaldinho would later fall out with then-PSG manager Luis Fernandez, who claimed the Samba sensation was paying more attention to Paris nightlife than football, Arteta enjoyed his room-mate’s joie de vivre.
The Gunners boss recalled how his 18 months in Paris began with a bump-start, saying: “We were in Barcelona when we got a phone call saying, ‘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 in their squad - Pochettino, Gabriel Heinze, Jaj-Jay Okocha, Nicolas Anelka - and you think, ’Are they sure?’
“But in football you need someone to give you the chance, to be surrounded by the right individuals, and they protected me like a son. It was the perfect environment for me. To come up against them is very special because of what I feel for that club, how they gave me the opportunity to play for the first time at a professional level and the experience, the club, the city, my team-mates, the coach that I had.
“I had to do all the defending because I had Ronaldinho and Okocha in front of me. Only joking, but just Imagine! It was super, almost unreal. It was a dream.
“Ronaldinho and me, we were room-mates for a year and a half. I could not see him like this (turning into a global superstar) at the time, but he was a huge talent. He was coming from Brazil and he didn’t have the 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. The he went to Barcelona in one of their worst moments and transformed them, too.
“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. And 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, but not for him. It was unbelievable to play with him. What was he like to room with? Great - again, so much energy, so much fun, everything was good. Never a problem. Great times.”
Arteta’s first taste of the Champions League as player also came with Paris Saint-Germain - a daunting Valentines Day date with AC Milan in the San Siro cauldron 23 years ago. It stood him in good stead.
“I was in the tunnel, I was looking across, and there was (owner) Silvio Berlusconi, Paolo Maldini, Andriy Shevchenko,” laughed Arteta. “I felt like I was thrown to the lions, but it turned out to be a really good match (a 1-1 draw), which I really enjoyed. It was an unbelievable night.”
Arteta has a high regard for current PSG coach Luis Enrique, the former Spain manager who won the Treble in his first season in charge of Barcelona, from their time as team-mates at the Nou Camp.
And he warned Paris Saint-Germain will be an early test of Arsenal’s readiness for another long run in Europe after they reached the quarter-finals last season as well as rising the waves of an intense title race.
He said: “This is what we have to prove - last year we almost went all the way. We came up short, so that is something we have to do better. We have to be involved in the cups much further, too, and that’s the next step we have to make as a team.”
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