Mikel Arteta
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| Mikel Arteta | ||
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| Personal information | ||
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Mikel Amatriain Arteta | |
| Date of birth | 26 March 1982 | |
| Place of birth | San Sebastián, Spain | |
| Height | 1.76 m (5 ft 91⁄2 in) | |
| Playing position | Winger | |
| Club information | ||
| Current club | Everton | |
| Number | 6 | |
| Youth clubs | ||
| 1997–2000 | FC Barcelona B | |
| Senior clubs1 | ||
| Years | Club | App (Gls)* |
| 2000–2002 2000–2002 2002–2004 2004–2005 2005 2005– |
FC Barcelona → Paris Saint-Germain (loan) Rangers Real Sociedad → Everton (loan) Everton |
0 (0) 31 (2) 50 (12) 15 (1) 12 (1) 92 (11) |
| National team2 | ||
| Spain U-21 | 7 (1) | |
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1 Senior club appearances and goals |
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Mikel Amatrain Arteta (born 26 March 1982 in San Sebastián, Guipuscoa, Spain) is a Spanish professional footballer. He is an attacking midfield player, currently playing in the English Premiership for Everton.
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[edit] Early career
Arteta began his football career at the FC Barcelona B squad at 15 years of age. Despite being promising he failed to hit the first team, and went a loan spell in 2000 with Paris Saint-Germain.
He joined Scottish club Rangers in 2002 for £6 million where he remained for two seasons, winning the 2003 Scottish Premier League title as well as the Scottish Cup and Scottish League Cup. Arteta enjoyed a successful first season at Rangers and quickly established himself as a first team regular and a fans favourite. However injuries and loss of form blighted his second season and he was forced to move on once again.
He joined Real Sociedad in 2004 as a replacement for Liverpool-bound Xabi Alonso but failed to establish himself in the team.
[edit] Everton
Everton Manager David Moyes signed Arteta in the 2005 January transfer window on loan with a view to a permanent transfer. Seen as a replacement for Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen, Arteta played a vital part in helping Everton achieve UEFA Champions League qualification. He scored his first Everton goal in the 4-0 demolition of Crystal Palace. Arteta signed a five year deal on the 15 July 2005—for a fee of £2 million.
The 2005/06 season saw Arteta pick up both the Everton Player of the Season Award (voted by the fans) and the Player's Player of the Season Award (voted by his teammates). Arteta's good form extended into the 2006-2007 season. As well as retaining his starting place, he frequently turned in man-of-the-match displays, as underlined in the Premier League match against Bolton in which Arteta, sensing a scoring opportunity, fired the ball into the top corner of the Bolton goal to give Everton a 1-0 win. He finished the season with nine goals from the 35 league games he played.
At the end of the 06/07 campaign Arteta was awarded the Player of the Season Award for the second consecutive year. He was also voted the Premiership's 'Midfielder of the Year' by the readers of skysports.com, beating footballer of the year Cristiano Ronaldo after a well organised campaign on Everton fan site Blue kipper.[1]
After some delays, Mikel Arteta signed a new 5-year deal with the club on June 29, 2007. On October 25, 2007 Arteta played his 100th game for Everton, in the 3-1 victory over Larissa in the UEFA Cup group stage. Three days later Arteta scored his first goal of the 2007-2008 season against Derby County in a 2-0 win, and then his second goal, a penalty against Nuremberg, on November 8, 2007.
Mikel had been struggling with a nasty stomach injury throughout the 2007/2008 campaign but his bravery and willingist to fight for the Everton casue meant he decided to play through the pain barrier until the season was closing to an end and he then decided to go in for the operation to cure the pain.
[edit] Style of play
While initially thought of as a "pivote" or defensive midfielder in the mould of his hero Josep Guardiola,[2] it is only since being moved to the wing by David Moyes that Arteta's career has truly begun to flourish. Although he achieved moderate success from central midfield with PSG and Rangers, his move to the wing saw him rated as the sixth most effective player in the Premier League in 2006-07 by the official player ratings system the Actim Index.
His style of play is characterised by excellent close control and dribbling, which coupled with short bursts of acceleration allows him to eliminate defenders with relative ease.[3][4]
This ability to beat his man has made him an increasingly difficult opponent for opposition defenders, exemplified by the fact that with 100 fouls committed against him last year he is the most fouled player in the Premier League.[5]. He has said himself that he learned some of his tricks and skill from Jay-Jay Okocha and Ronaldinho who he played behind at PSG. Arteta also revealed that his favourite player was the skillful Claudio Caniggia who he played with at Glasgow Rangers. Arteta is considered by many to be Everton's most skillful player since the days of "The Holy Trinity" (Harvey, Kendall and Ball) and "The School of Science". Arteta's skillfulness and being played on the wing in a team who, until recently, had limited success makes him resemble cult-hero Kanchelskis of the Everton team of the '90s - Joe Royle's "Dogs of War"
Additionally, he has proved an extremely potent creative force thanks mainly to his pinpoint crossing ability and propensity for the killer pass, with his total of 13 league assists[6] in the 2006-07 season being second only to Cristiano Ronaldo. He is also renowned for his ability from set pieces, with 14 of Everton's 52 league goals last season coming from an Arteta free kick or corner.
[edit] Career statistics
| Club | Season | League | Cup | Europe | Total | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | Apps | Goals | Assists | ||
| Everton | 2004–05 | 12 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 2 |
| 2005–06 | 29 | 1 | 7 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 36 | 3 | 7 | |
| 2006–07 | 35 | 9 | 13 | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 39 | 9 | 14 | |
| 2007–08 | 23 | 1 | 8 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 3 | 1 | 31 | 2 | 9 | |
| Total | 99 | 12 | 30 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 4 | 1 | 119 | 16 | 32 | |
[edit] Honours
Scottish Cup: 2003
Scottish League Cup: 2003
Everton Player of the Season: 2006, 2007
Everton Player's Player of the Season: 2006
skysports.com Midfielder of the Year: 2007
North West Player of the Year: 2007
[edit] Personal life
- Arteta is close friends with Xabi Alonso, who plays for Everton's rivals Liverpool F.C. The two are neighbours in Liverpool's Albert Dock apartment complex.[7] Other neighbours include Liverpool's Pepe Reina, Everton team mate Nuno Valente and Barnsley's Anderson Silva. He also shares a close friendship with Everton teammate Tim Cahill.
- Arteta's girlfriend is the former 'Miss Spain' Lorena Bernal.
- Arteta is multilingual, speaking fluent Spanish, Basque and Catalan. He speaks English and some French and Italian. He is also learning Portuguese.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ Midfielder of the year. Retrieved on 17 June 2007.
- ^ Arteta: Artist of Goodison | the Daily Mail
- ^ Moyes praises artful Arteta | the Daily Mail
- ^ Five-star Arteta can leave Ronaldo in his tracks | the Daily Mail
- ^ ESPNsoccernet: Mikel Arteta
- ^ ESPNsoccernet: Mikel Arteta
- ^ Arteta: Artist of Goodison. Retrieved on 17 August 2007.
- ^ Arteta's Love Affair with Everton
[edit] External links
- Mikel Arteta MySpace
- Mikel Arteta career stats at Soccerbase
- Profile at evertonfc.com
- Profile at Yahoo! Sports
- Profile at 4thegame.com
- Photos and stats at sporting-heroes.net
- (French) Mikel Arteta French league stats at lfp.fr
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