The Chelsea maestro has named Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane as his idol. While speaking to English media, Fabregas said that he grew up celebrating the dazzling heroics of the French legend.
‘My first football memory was Zinedine Zidane scoring two goals in the final of the World Cup at France in 1998,’ Fabregas told English media.
He said that winning the 2010 World Cup with Spain was the major influence in his career since it allowed him to follow in the footsteps of the Frenchman.
Fabregas further talked about how he evolved as a kid in Barcelona to Europe’s most lethal midfielder.
“Long before signing for Barcelona, I went for a trial with Albert Benaiges [who ran Barca’s youth teams]. That was the first time I put on the Barcelona shirt in a real game,” Fabregas said to Goal.com.
“There were many things that made me go to Arsenal,” he admits. “I was really happy in Barcelona but I saw how players like Messi and Pique were moved up to the youth ‘A’ team and Rodolfo wasn’t there anymore.”
“They wanted me to move up to the first team within a short time, they believed in me very much but I still couldn’t make out if they were selling me a dream. It was true that Wenger had interrupted his holidays in France to see me and make me the offer in person. That was decisive and we decided to take that route. And everything was phenomenal after that.”
His rise to stardom was meteoric. “It couldn’t have gone better,” he says. “At the age of 16 I was the youngest player in the history of the club to debut, to score in the Premier League and also in the Champions League. That allowed me to reach the level I have been at for the last 12 years and that’s difficult in football today. It’s more physical and the speed is incredible. The only thing you can do is to keep training your body and mind to stay around for as long as possible.”
photo credit: Tellementfoot.com
The 28-year-old Chelsea midfielder played an important part for Chelsea yesterday against his former club Arsenal in the London derby which ended 0-1 in favour of the defending champions Chelsea. Fabregas, who showed spectacular form last season which ended with Chelsea crowned the Premier League champions, has failed to replicate the same form this season. In 19 league appearances so far, the Spaniard has only 3 assists and 1 goal to boast of.
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