PSG ‘protected me like a son’, says Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta ahead of the reunion

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Mikel Arteta said Paris St Germain protected him “like a son” on the eve of his reunion with the team that handed him his professional debut.

Arteta was just a teenager when he joined the French club on loan from Barcelona, ​​and on Tuesday evening he will welcome them to the Emirates for the opening match of Arsenal’s Champions League season, with Luis Enrique – his former Barcelona teammate – in the dugout out of the opponent.

Arteta joined a star-studded PSG squad that included Mauricio Pochettino, Gabriel Heinze, Jay-Jay Okocha and Nicolas Anelka. Ronaldinho was also on the verge of moving there.

“We were in Barcelona when we got the call that ‘you have to pack your bags and fly to Paris now’,” Arteta said of his move to PSG in 2001.

“I was 18 years old, I hadn’t played professional football yet and when you look at those names at the club you think: ‘Are you sure?’ But you get there and Luis Fernandez was the manager and he was the one who believed in me.

“That’s what you need, someone who gives you the opportunity and is surrounded by the right individuals, I’ve been very lucky with that.

“They protected me like a son. It was the perfect environment for me to give me the opportunity to see what I was capable of. It was a great experience. I wanted to stay there, but I was owned by Barcelona and they couldn’t find an agreement.”

Arteta played 53 times for PSG. He also got his Champions League bow from the Ligue 1 club in the 1-1 draw against AC Milan.

Recalling the match at San Siro, the Spaniard added: “I was in the tunnel, I looked around and there was (Paolo) Maldini, (Andrea) Pirlo, (Andriy) Shevchenko, and I thought: ‘really?’ I was thrown to the lions. But it was an incredible evening.”

Arteta also revealed he was sharing a room with Ronaldinho, who joined from Gremio. Ronaldinho would later win the World Cup with Brazil and the Champions League in Barcelona. He also won the Ballon d’Or in 2005.

“We were roommates for a year and a half,” Arteta said of the player widely regarded as one of the greatest of all time. “He was amazing, so much energy and so much fun.

“He was a huge talent. He is the only player I have seen in history who could single-handedly transform two clubs. He did it in Paris, he transformed them. He went to Barcelona at one of their worst moments and transformed it 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 had never seen such talent. During training, during every exercise, I thought: ‘How is this possible?’ It was incredible to play with him.”

Arteta will now look to create a night that Arsenal fans will remember, against a side that reached the semi-finals of the tournament last season.

The Gunners, who reached the last eight before being knocked out by Bayern Munich, are looking for their first win in the revamped tournament after a goalless draw against Atalanta.

Asked whether Arsenal now have the ingredients to go all the way, Arteta said: “We will find out, but we are not thinking about it yet because we are still very, very far away, starting with a difficult match tomorrow night. .”