Alexander Hleb probably isn’t the first name that springs to mind when you think of the Arsenal team which made the Champions League final in 2006.
But it was Arsenal where the versatile Belarusian midfielder played the best football in his career – and eventually earned himself a £12million move to Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona in the summer of 2008.
Yet what would be a dream move for most players turned out to be an utter disaster for Hleb, who spent just one year at Barcelona before leaving loan to Stuttgart and never returning to Spain.
In an interview on the ‘In Lockdown’ podcast, the former Arsenal winger explains how he came to leave north London.
“Many years later and I still think about it,” Hleb said. “I don’t understand. To this day I still don’t understand what happened or why I made the decision.
“Of course, Barcelona at that moment was the best team in the world, but I was really happy at Arsenal at the time. I had friends, I enjoyed the coach, I was playing for one of the best teams, the fans, the stadium, everything! The fantastic championship, the Premier League, everything!
“Why I left, I don’t understand. Barça, of course, was the best team at the time and everybody wants something to try but really I was 100 percent happy at Arsenal.
“I cried when I talked to Arsene. We talked on the holiday before I left, and he told me he wanted to keep me, and I was important. I cried. I didn’t know what to do at that moment.
