Six years after, Fabregas relieved, wins a medal

Cesc Fabregas knows he has a fight on his hands for first-team opportunities at Barcelona but insists he had to leave Arsenal because he had “stagnated”.

The Catalan midfielder returned to Barca this week to conclude one of the most protracted transfer sagas in world football. Barca paid an initial €29m to sign their youth-team product from the Gunners after he made it clear he wanted to return to the Nou Camp.

Fabregas has spoken of his delight at completing the move but admits he faces the biggest challenge of his career now. ”The easiest thing would have been to stay at Arsenal,” he told Barca TV. ”I was the captain, playing every game. We were always in the Champions League, always fighting for titles. For all that, and the tough competition here, perhaps now might be the worst time to return to Barca.

“It’s going to be really tough to make the starting eleven, but I needed a new challenge in my life. I thought I’d stagnated a bit, and needed a change of scenery. I needed a special motivation to bring the best out of myself.”

Fabregas

After the hunger to go back home, to FC Barcelona from where Arsenal’s Arsene Wenger literally poached him from, Cesc Fabregas, born Francesc Fabregas Soler, finally made his debut for the Catalans albeit as a late substitute in the second leg of a stormy Spanish Super Cup at the Nou Camp on Wednesday.

The £35m player who thanked Wenger for giving him the opportunity to play for Arsenal and become the big player he is today, was fulfilled as a player, winning the Super Cup with Barcelona, a feat he last witnessed with the Gunners some six years ago.

As a youth player with the Spanish U-17 team, Fabregas was already used to winning trophies, albeit personal ones, winning both the Golden Ball for best player and Golden Bot for top scorer at the U-17 World Championship in Finland in 2003.

This was not forthcoming at Arsenal after the FA Cup victory in 2005 and he suddenly felt like a fish out of water.

He had an unblemished career in the Premiership, playing for eight years with a solitary Red card from a Premier League game in the 2005/2006 season. At 16 years and 177 days old, Fabregas made history as Arsenal’s youngest first team player when he made his debut against Rotherdam United at Highbury on October 28, 2003 before a crowd of 27,451 spectators.

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