‘I Had Never Seen a Talent Like This!’ - How PSG’s Gamble on a Teenage Mikel Arteta Paid Off

Mikel Arteta is set to return to PSG as Arsenal manager on Wednesday hoping to help them reach their first UEFA Champions League final since 2006, but this is the story of his days with the Parisian outfit as a teenager.

When Paris Saint-Germain unveiled an untested 18-year-old Mikel Arteta in January 2001, eyebrows were raised in a dressing room filled with experience and ambition. 

The Spanish midfielder had not  kicked a ball in professional football, yet manager Luis Fernandez saw something others didn’t.

Edouard Cissé, a PSG midfielder at the time, admits the squad was puzzled. “We were all wondering why Luis had brought in this kid who hadn’t played at senior level,” he told The Athletic.

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 “Then he trained once with us and it all made sense. He played rondo and didn’t go in the middle even once. That’s when we knew.”

Arteta’s arrival at the Parc des Princes came during an ambitious recruitment drive as PSG pushed for domestic and European success. The club had already brought in high-profile names like Nicolas Anelka, Mauricio Pochettino, Stephane Dalmat and Frederic Dehu, with Arteta’s signing seemingly a footnote.

But that quickly changed.

Within weeks, Arteta’s composure, intelligence and technical mastery silenced any doubts. He made his debut in a UEFA Champions League tie against AC Milan — a daunting task for any player, let alone a teenager. Paolo Maldini, Demetrio Albertini, Andriy Shevchenko and Oliver Bierhoff were on the opposition side, but Arteta didn’t blink.

“I remember one of his first touches,” Cissé told The Athletic. “I warned him that Gattuso and Ambrosini were pressing, but he just cushioned the ball with his chest, calmly brought it down and played out of pressure. I was stunned. He’d only just arrived.”

For Arteta, the move from Barcelona’s youth setup to Paris was unexpected and intense. “I was terrified,” he admitted before Arsenal’s semi-final clash with PSG. “One day we were in Barcelona, then came the call — ‘You’re going to Paris now.’ I hadn’t played a single senior match. I thought, ‘Are they serious?’”

Luis Fernandez was the man who placed his faith in the youngster. “That’s what you need at that age,” Arteta reflected. “Someone who believes in you and puts you in the right environment. PSG was perfect — the players, the coaching, the support. They treated me like a son.”

Alongside Pochettino, who had just arrived from Espanyol and was named captain, Arteta found a mentor. “He won’t like me saying this,” Arteta joked, “but Mauricio was like a father. He guided me, protected me, taught me. I owe him a lot.”

According to goalkeeper Jérôme Alonzo, Arteta and Pochettino would often stay long after training, locked in tactical conversations. “They weren’t just chatting — they were dissecting the game,” Alonzo said. “Most players didn’t engage that deeply. Mikel was different. He was mature, serious, curious. He was learning how to become a coach even then.”

Luis Fernandez, often stereotyped as a motivational figure rather than a tactical one, saw things others missed. “Mikel had an elegance in his play,” Fernandez told The Athletic. “He could receive, turn, pass with intelligence and calm. That’s what we wanted — a midfielder who could dictate play with brain, not just brawn.”

Arteta’s growth was rapid. He mastered French within a few months, became close with the club’s Latin contingent, and won over fans and media alike. 

Cissé, whose mother is Basque, understood the pride and intensity Arteta carried with him. “Basque footballers are wired differently,” he said. “He didn’t care who was around him — he just played. He had pride, fire, and leadership. Even at 18, he stood out.”

Arteta mostly roomed with Ronaldinho during away trips. “He was unbelievable,” Arteta recalled. “That aura, that joy — it was contagious. I had never seen talent like his. He made the impossible look easy.”

Despite a star-studded squad that included Ronaldinho, Jay-Jay Okocha, and Anelka, PSG didn’t meet expectations. They did manage to win the 2001 Intertoto Cup but fell short in Ligue 1, finishing fourth behind Lyon.

Goalkeeper Alonzo still regrets what could have been. “If Ronny and Jay-Jay had performed consistently, we’d have won the league by a landslide,” he told The Athletic. “They were artists — brilliant but unpredictable.”

By the time PSG faced Rangers in the UEFA Cup, Arteta had become integral. When Rangers boss Dick Advocaat inquired about the team, his scouts identified Arteta as PSG’s most important player. After two legs ended goalless, the Scots progressed on penalties — Arteta converted his spot kick, but PSG bowed out.

Rangers pounced. PSG had an option to buy him permanently, but the Glasgow club swooped in with a £6 million bid. It felt like a sideways move to many, but not to Arteta.

“When he left, the midfield felt hollow,” Alonzo said. “He was just 18 but left a hole you could feel. That tells you everything. And I thought, ‘Rangers? Not Barcelona, not Real Madrid?’ But Mikel always knew his next move before anyone else. Like a chess player.”

Now, over two decades later, Arteta returns to the Parc des Princes, not as a player, but as Arsenal manager — overseeing the biggest game of his managerial career. 

The man across from him, Luis Enrique, is a link to the past, a reminder of why Arteta never broke through at Barcelona in the first place.

But it was Paris where he was given the freedom to grow, where he first proved he belonged.

And on Wednesday night, Arteta will look to deliver one more masterstroke — just like the 18-year-old who once stunned everyone with a simple rondo.