The Spaniard got to experience first team football with Paris Saint-Germain early in his career.
Those years were highlighted by the memorable experience of sharing a room with Brazil legend Ronaldinho.
He stated: “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.”