Mikel Arteta

Early career

Born in San Sebastián, Basque Country, Arteta began his football career at Antiguoko and befriended fellow midfielder Xabi Alonso as they played together every weekend. The two often played along the beaches and gutters of San Sebastián and dreamed of playing together at Real Sociedad. Arteta left San Sebastián aged 15 in July 1997, with Antiguoko teammates Jon Alvarez and Mikel Yanguas, to trial with Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia. The trio played three trial games and all earned professional contracts with the club. Housed in dormitories, the academy lifestyle was notoriously strict and Arteta's Antiguoko teammates would leave the academy shortly after arrival. It was in these dormitories where Arteta would become room-mates and friends with Víctor Valdés and Andrés Iniesta as teenagers. Arteta also became a friend of Xavi Hernández during his tenure at La Masia. Arteta met then-Barcelona captain and his future coaching mentor Pep Guardiola during this time, while learning the practices of their then-head coach Louis van Gaal. Arteta trained regularly with Van Gaal's first team but was limited only to appearances in Spain's Segunda División B with Barcelona B. Following Van Gaal's departure from the club on 20 May 2000, incoming coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer brought Emmanuel Petit and Gerard López into Barcelona's midfield, pushing Arteta further back into a queue which already included Guardiola, Luis Enrique, Phillip Cocu, Iván de la Peña, Xavi and…

Arteta played for Spain at youth level. He played in the victorious 1999 UEFA European Under-16 Championship campaign, at the 1999 UEFA–CAF Meridian Cup, 1999 FIFA U-17 World Championship, and captained the side in the 2004 U21 European Championships qualifying campaign. In 2010, there were moves by the English FA and Fabio Capello to see if Arteta could represent England, believing he qualified under FIFA's five-year residency rule. FIFA ruled this out, however, with Arteta claiming in an interview in 2016 that he "almost went to war with FIFA" over the ruling. Arteta was believed to be in Spain's squad in February 2009 but a cruciate knee ligament injury meant his name was removed from the list before the squad was announced. Often noted to be one of the best players in modern times to be omitted a senior international cap, Arteta played at a time when Spain had several enormously high quality players available in his position, such as Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Xabi Alonso, Cesc Fàbregas, Marcos Senna, Sergio Busquets, Santi Cazorla and David Silva.

Arteta initially started out playing as a number 10 in the Barcelona youth system, and was later shifted to the position of a "pivot" or defensive midfielder, as he was thought to be a player in the mould of Pep Guardiola. He was rated as the sixth most effective player in the Premier League in 2006–07 by the official player ratings system the Actim Index. Arteta returned to his original deeper midfield role at Arsenal. in which he excelled as his team's playmaker, due to his technique, skill, vision, passing, awareness, and tactical intelligence. His total of 12 league assists in the 2006–07 season was third to Cesc Fàbregas and Cristiano Ronaldo. With 100 fouls committed against him in the same season, he was the most fouled player in the Premier League.

Manchester City

Arteta had three options upon retirement. He was offered to lead the Arsenal Academy, by Arsène Wenger, join Mauricio Pochettino's (his teammate from PSG) backroom staff at Tottenham Hotspur or join Pep Guardiola's coaching team at Manchester City. On 3 July 2016, Arteta was appointed an assistant coach at Manchester City, alongside Brian Kidd and Domènec Torrent, who operated as deputies to Pep Guardiola. Guardiola and Arteta first met at the Barcelona academy, although Guardiola was already established in the first team, being 11 years older than Arteta. Since then, the two kept in touch. Guardiola was convinced Arteta – who was an Arsenal player at the time – would make a good coach when he called him to get information on Chelsea, prior to their 2012 Champions League semi-finals against Barcelona. Arteta earned his UEFA Pro Licence after completing the course run by the Football Association of Wales. In 2015, when Guardiola was exiting Bayern Munich, Arteta, in his final year as a player, re-connected and the two men decided to work together. Arteta stood in as Man City manager in a 2–1 Champions League loss against Lyon on 19 September 2018, because of Guardiola's touchline ban. At Man City, Arteta won two Premier League titles, an FA Cup, and two EFL Cups. In 2018, Arteta became strongly linked with the Arsenal manager's vacancy, following the departure of his former manager Arsène Wenger, but Unai Emery was eventually hired.

Arsenal…