The most rewarding interviews tend to flow like natural conversations, and this usually depends on the interviewee being time-generous and committed to the subject. When this happens, it can feel appropriate to ask one last question off the track just beaten.

So it was with Andoni Iraola in his modest office at Bournemouth’s Vitality Stadium in February last year. Among football folk, Iraola has rare interests, and he had agreed to discuss his love of literature and particularly his interest in Mary Shelley’s historic novel, Frankenstein. Iraola had read it pre-Bournemouth, then discovered Shelley is buried in St Peter’s churchyard in the town centre. He and his wife visited the grave.

In his second language, Iraola spoke insightfully about Shelley’s novel. More broadly, he said what he gets from literature is “some distraction from football. When you start reading a book, you are thinking about other things; you don’t think of football for two hours or whatever. It’s like going for a walk or riding a bike.”

The reference to riding a bike underplayed Iraola’s deep love of cycling. He had mentioned it in previous interviews, about seeking hills in flat Dorset. So this was going to be the additional question squeezed in.

Iraola grew up in the Basque Country in northern Spain, where cycling is part of the culture and where, in 1992, the Tour de France held its opening three stages. These included the Prologue, an 8km (around five miles) individual time trial, in San Sebastian — the beautiful city on the beach 10km north-east of Iraola’s hometown, Usurbil.

Cyclists leave San Sebastian (Graham Chadwick /Allsport)

A reason to raise the 1992 Prologue with Iraola was that The Athletic’s correspondent had travelled to San Sebastian as a low-budget punter to see those opening stages, to witness in the flesh great cyclists such as Greg LeMond, Stephen Roche, Claudio Chiappucci, Pedro Delgado and others. Particularly one other.

This became the last-question small talk with Iraola. He was edging out of his seat, but as he listened, he sat back down. His smile grew and he said: “I was there. I remember it very well.”

More than three decades on, we were transported back to a Prologue quivering with drama and to the other cyclist in question, Miguel Indurain, from Navarre, a region that borders the modern Basque Country. He was known as ‘Big Mig’ and he won the Tour de France five years in a row. Indurain’s first Tour victory was in 1991, as Iraola happily pointed out. “Indurain,” he said, “was top.”

In the summer of 1992, Iraola had just had his 10th birthday, but he already understood the dynamics of watching elite cycling; that it can be a split-second blur of colour and noise, then over. Individual time-trialling can offer a wider perspective and in 1992, if memory is reliable, each team leader rode last. The effect was escalating anticipation, with the knowledge Indurain would be the final man out for the last team.

The brilliant Swiss, Alex Zulle, had set a standard not even the likes of Eric Breukink or Gianni Bugno could equal. It left one last rider: Indurain, a master of the time trial.

“It’s good watching this (time trial), because otherwise cycling is so fast, they go past,” Iraola said. “In time trials, at least you see everyone. Indurain started this in yellow, because he had won the previous year.”

What happened next — in 1992 — was that Indurain did what no one else could do. As the home fans roared and smacked the hoardings along sealed-off streets, Indurain pedalled furiously to a two-second win. Two seconds.

As a little Basque boy gasped, San Sebastian erupted.

Miguel Indurain puts on the yellow jersey after winning the Prologue of the 79th Tour de France cycling race, on July 4, 1992, in San Sebastian (Boris Horvat/AFP via Getty Images)

It was not always so joyous. The day before, the Basque separatist organisation, ETA, had set off a car bomb that damaged a vehicle being used to cover the race by UK broadcaster Channel 4; the green, red and white Basque flag, so prominent, had previously been banned by the Spanish government. Basque desire for independence stems from a distinct geographic and cultural identity, and political tension was never far from the surface.

But on this Saturday, the Basque Country was euphoric. A fresh-faced Iraola saluted his local hero and the bars and cafes of San Sebastian, one of which still sported a poster of John Aldridge on the wall, never closed.

Aldridge was the prolific Liverpool striker who left Anfield for San Sebastian club Real Sociedad in 1989. He departed two years later just as another former Liverpool forward, John Toshack, took over as the manager. At Iraola’s beloved Athletic Club along the coast in Bilbao, former Everton hero Howard Kendall had just been manager — there’s a strong Liverpool-Basque connection to Iraola’s young life.

“I was 10 years old,” he said. “At 10, you remember everything that happens.”

John Aldridge swapped Liverpool for Real Sociedad (Allsport UK/Allsport)

Fittingly for the World Cup summer of 2026, Iraola’s thoughts jumped immediately two years ahead to underline his view of memory. “My World Cup is USA 94,” he said. “I remember everything: the teams, the players. You ask me something that happened two years ago and I can’t remember. When you are young, everything is big.”

Spain reached the quarter-finals in 1994, losing to eventual runners-up Italy. Not long after, Iraola entered the youth system at Athletic Club on his way to a 17-year playing career and, in 2008, a first cap for Spain. It was two months after the country had won Euro 2008 and was the first of seven caps. Now, in his office, a minute on from recalling the mighty Indurain, Iraola was on his feet talking about memory and what we forget.

“I remember 2008, 2010 (the World Cup in South Africa, which Spain won) and the 2012 Euros (another Spanish title),” he said.

He had been close to making the squad in 2012, having shown great form in Athletic’s 63-game 2011-12 season. Under Marcelo Bielsa, they reached the Europa League final and Copa del Rey final. Iraola played in 50 of those matches.

“In ’12, I missed the team (Spain’s squad) because of an injury,” he said. “I was thinking, ‘It doesn’t matter because we are not going to win’ — they won it again easily.”

He laughed at himself and his poor judgement.

But he had admitted to Spain’s selectors he was not fully fit. He could have kept quiet, been included in the squad, watched from the sidelines and collected a medal.

“I finished the season with the Europa League final, the Copa del Rey final — with Bielsa,” he said. “To play those finals, I had to have cortisone injections. After them, I couldn’t even kick a ball. I wasn’t going to play a minute anyway (at the Euros, even if he was fit). I could have said nothing!”

Iraola was smiling again and with that, he was out of the office door and on to a journey that has since led him to Liverpool; Anfield and the former club of Aldridge and Toshack.

Andoni Iraola, wearing the red and white of Athletic Club, tackles Espanyol’s Valmiro Lopes in 2008 (Rafa Rivas/AFP via Getty Images)

And the wheels turn elsewhere.

Once again, as in 1992, the 2026 Tour de France begins in the north of Spain. It starts in Barcelona on Saturday with a team time trial. Make no mistake, even as Liverpool head coach, Iraola will find time to tune in.

His house-hunting on Merseyside is likely to factor in proximity to cycle paths and, in a recent interview with TNT Sports’ cycling commentator Rob Hatch, Iraola said he always tries to catch up on footage of the latest Classics. He has been to not just the Tour de France, but to La Vuelta in Spain and he told Hatch his favourite climb is the Koppenberg in the Tour of Flanders.

Iraola has even scaled that infamously steep cobbled climb himself, no mean feat given it once forced the legendary Eddy Merckx to dismount and walk up. “You might as well make the cyclists climb ladders with bikes around their necks,” Merckx said, as Peter Cossins reports in his book The Monuments.

Wide-eyed, as only a genuine enthusiast would be, Iraola told Hatch: “The Tour of Flanders for me is like a myth.”

Cyclists, led by Andre Weumissen, are forced to walk up the Koppenberg on the 1985 Tour of Flanders (Graham Watson/Getty Images)

Now Iraola has gone from the Koppenberg to the Kop — boom-boom! — and from the latter he will observe this year’s Tour de France Prologue knowing Tadej Pogacar can join Merckx, Jacques Anquetil, Bernard Hinault, and Indurain as the only riders to win Le Tour five times.

Another theme to remind him of 1992 will be interest in teenager Paul Seixas, the latest French hope to win the Tour. In ’92, there was some angst that it had been seven years since a Frenchman had triumphed. Today, the wait is up to 41 years.

Back then, attention fell on Richard Virenque.

Later disgraced in the Festina doping affair, young Virenque claimed the yellow jersey on the third stage out of San Sebastian to Pau in France. No doubt Iraola remembers because, as he said, at 10, you do.

Victor Vazquez is a former professional footballer from Spain, an MLS Cup champion with Toronto FC in 2017, who came through Barcelona’s academy alongside Lionel Messi. 

When I was 13, Barcelona were not used to recruiting kids from abroad. 

Then, out of the blue, a kid from Argentina arrived at La Masia.

It was the autumn of 2000 when coaching staff introduced him to us before a training session and said he would come on trial. On that first day, our manager for the Infantil B team (under-13 level), Rodolfo Borrell, tried to give him a proper test. 

Borrell called on the team’s most intelligent player. “Cesc (Fabregas), you are defending the new kid in the next training drill,” he said. 

It was an exercise to practise attacking transitions, ending with a forward taking on a defender in a one-vs-one situation. Fabregas was the on-pitch mastermind of our 1987-born generation at La Masia, one of our best players (and one who went on to star for Arsenal, Spain and Barcelona).

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But let me tell you, Fabregas was helpless. That Argentine guy tore him to pieces in each of the three one-vs-ones they had. 

This was the first ‘Wow’ moment I recall. That day, I told myself: “OK, I am playing with a kid named Lionel Messi, and I am not going to forget that name anytime soon.”

The following day, Borrell made us go through the same training drill, but this time selected our best defender. “Gerard (Pique, who would start the finals as Spain won the 2010 World Cup and Euro 2012), you mark him today, and please make sure he does not have an easy job. Do whatever you need to,” he said. 

It was more of the same — the way Messi drove the ball forward, glued to his feet, and managed to produce that final flick as the defender tried to tackle him. It is standard practice for him now, but that was also true at 13. 

Messi playing for the Barcelona first team alongside Fabregas (far left) and Pique (second right) (Josep Lago/AFP via Getty Images)

Messi was transformed on a football pitch. Off it, he was incredibly shy. He barely socialised when he arrived, changed in a corner of the dressing room and did not waste words.

That week on trial turned into a permanent move very quickly, but he had a rocky start to life in Barcelona. For five months, he was not allowed to play competitive games due to paperwork issues, so he could only train with us or appear in friendlies. On March 7, 2001, Messi finally made his debut in a league match against Catalan side Amposta. He came off the bench and scored. 

The following week, he played a friendly with the age group above us at Barca, but there was an unfortunate plot twist. After a clash with an opponent, Messi broke his leg; a fibula fracture in his left leg. 

It was a huge blow for him. We did not see him in Barcelona for a while after that — he went back to Argentina for some time. The club told us he would miss the remainder of the season and that they preferred Messi to go back home. We wondered if he’d even return, and what the effects of such an injury at a young age might be.

An outsider might argue he was in the best football academy in the world, playing for a club who facilitated a home for his family and gave him a great education. But you can’t even imagine what it is like for a 13-year-old kid, with an introverted character, to leave his home behind with his dad and go to the other side of the world searching for a dream. 

He did not know anyone. When he arrived, he was not allowed to play football because of those bureaucratic problems. When those were solved, he broke his leg. When he came back from Argentina, he had to fight to adapt to a new culture, make new friends and find ways to be happy.

I have been a footballer for more than a decade, played abroad for many years, and now I am a father of a 12-year-old. Let me tell you: this is not easy. At all. 

Messi never had it easy.

He returned for the final few months of his recovery process, and was back on the pitch the following season, 2001-02.

At the beginning of the campaign with the Infantil A team (under-14), he was not starting every game. We were one of the best La Masia generations ever — Fabregas and Pique can vouch for that — but, at that age, we felt unstoppable. 

I ended up as under-13s top scorer with more than 60 goals. The other forward, Marc Pedraza, scored about 50. We beat city rivals Espanyol in the league, despite their team being a year older than ours — something that barely ever happened. 

After the injury, Messi needed a bit of time to find his way into the side.

That season is also when I started to become more aware of the hormone treatment he was going through. He was still that tiny, silky attacker when he returned, while the others and I were growing at a different pace.

Messi had been following a medical plan, financed by Barca, in which he was given injections with hormones to stimulate growth from a very young age. I think he started even before I got to fully know him. I never saw him take the injections — it happened every night at his home, usually administered by his dad or a club doctor. 

Messi missed some training sessions because he felt dizzy after the injections. Some mornings, he could not come to school either, as he felt unwell. It was all part of a tough process, and some people might not even be aware of that. But what Messi had to go through was far from easy. 

He and I clicked thanks to school trips. We were the same age, went to the same class and took the same Barca bus to go to the city’s Lleo XIII academy, which all the residents of La Masia still attend. Alongside another team-mate, Rafa Blazquez, we were a bit of a rebel trio. 

The old La Masia building at Barcelona (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images)

I lived in the old La Masia building, like a lot of Barca academy players, but Messi and his family stayed in an apartment in the city. It was located on Gran Via de Carles III, which was walking distance from our facilities and the Camp Nou.

Apart from football, we started bonding over our Discmans — remember those? We sat next to each other on the school bus and listened to our favourite music. Messi had his Argentinian tunes on all day; he liked cumbia (a kind of music from Latin America). I showed him the most famous Spanish bands at the time. We exchanged CDs and had a laugh.

We were not great in the classroom, I won’t lie. We just wanted to focus on football. The club stressed how important it was for us to pass all our exams — but the best moment of the day was when school finished and we jumped onto the bus, straight back to La Masia. 

Messi stayed with us and had lunch at the club’s facilities, with all the Barca players of different ages. Then, we had a few hours to spare before training at 5.30pm every day. 

At the start, Messi preferred to walk back to his apartment and rest a bit but, as time went by, he often chose to stay with us all afternoon. He would come to our bedroom and take a nap there before training — or we would start a kickabout next to La Masia with players from the various age groups.

Those three years we spent together at La Masia are certainly some of the best of my life. It was like a 24-hour school trip every day, every week. With my best mates. 

The 2003-2004 campaign was when he took the club by storm. He had left his injury behind and ended the previous season like a rocket. That June, Messi turned 16. Barca decided to promote him to the Juvenil B team, the under-18s. His manager there was Guillermo Hoyos — who is today his coach at Inter Miami.

Messi was so unstoppable that, after three games, they brought him up to the Juvenil A, the under-19s. The same thing happened there. A few weeks later, he had been promoted to senior football.

At the time, the club had two reserve teams: Barca C, playing in the Spanish fourth tier, and Barca B in the third tier.

Messi was sent to Barca C first, and scored goals easily. But Barcelona became worried as local teams filled with veteran players were going after him week in, week out and dishing out particularly harsh treatment. After five games, they promoted him to Barca B, because the football was more technical and less physical a division above. 

In November 2003, he made his unofficial first-team debut in a friendly against Porto. Messi played with five different Barca sides in a season — something nobody has ever done since. 

Given how effortlessly he went up the ranks, I remember speaking with team-mates from our age group at the time and agreeing that, as soon as he made it to the first team, he would have no problems in reaching those levels. 

Barca just needed to help him with minor tweaks. For instance, Messi suffered a lot of muscular injuries in his first full season with the first team. The medical and nutritional departments made him follow a strict diet, forbidding him from having fizzy drinks — which he loved — among other things. 

Messi celebrates one of his first goals for Barcelona at senior level in 2006 (Lluis Gene/AFP via Getty Images)

Now, my son often asks me about those days, about how good Messi was and how he behaved. 

Something I will never forget, and which speaks volumes about his values, is that, no matter how many levels he was playing above us, he never lost touch with our generation. 

Messi would come to watch us at every home match he could, from being 15 right up until he became a Barca star and I was playing my first games for the B team. We usually spotted him sitting in the stands, or even standing next to the corner flag — and always cheering for us. 

He would also join us after games sometimes, and we kept the same plans we had as kids: going for a walk at the L’illa Diagonal shopping centre in Barcelona, or going bowling at Pedralbes, a district close to the Camp Nou. 

I managed to break into the first team when Pep Guardiola was in charge. Messi was already the best player in the world. I was part of the squad that won the Champions League in 2011. But eventually I had to leave and build my own career abroad. I don’t regret any of it — I’ve had the best experiences of my life thanks to football. 

I retired last year, but I still have a moment from 2023 in the back of my head. It was in the final year of my contract at Major League Soccer side Toronto FC, a club I loved and where I became an MLS champion in 2017. 

Victor Vazquez in action for Toronto (Jeff Chevrier/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

One of the last games I started was against Messi’s Inter Miami — we lost 4-0. I had goosebumps as I walked onto the pitch alongside my childhood friend. We chatted before and after the match, and I could see the joy of that kid in his eyes. He must have seen the same with me. 

I would have done anything to stay a bit longer in MLS and join Miami, ending my career alongside that boy I started dreaming with. I did not hesitate to tell my agent that! But my legs were pretty much gone by then. It was too late. 

I wasn’t able to play with Messi again, but the dreams we had together as kids had already come true. 

With each passing summer, the football world grows more surprised by jumps in transfer fees.

Elliot Anderson’s £116million move from Nottingham Forest to Manchester City is this summer’s yard stick, with The Athletic reporting this week that Paris Saint-Germain believe their winger Bradley Barcola should be valued at a much higher price.

PSG do not feel the need to sell the 23-year-old after Milan signed Goncalo Ramos from them for a club-record fee (in the region of €70m). Barcola, however, has been reluctant to extend his two-year deal as he desires more starts. But if he were to push for a move, the winger would not be short of suitors. Arsenal’s admiration of the France international is known while Liverpool’s interest was reported in mid-June.

So, is Barcola worth more than the £116m City are paying Forest for Anderson?

From a pure financial perspective on player values, The Athletic has enlisted the help of Twenty First Group (TFG), a sports intelligence firm which includes high-profile clubs, leagues and more among its client base.

Note that:

• ‘Value’ does not equate to ‘price’.
• What Twenty First Group value a player at may differ materially from the same player’s projected price.
• Value is driven by intrinsic matters, agnostic of market factors — age, position, experience, to name just three.
• A player’s price incorporates aspects which impact what his existing club could expect to receive for him in a given transaction — think remaining contract length, wealth of the buyer, wealth of the seller, and so on.
• Value, not price, has been used here.

In Barcola’s case, TFG have valued him at £100m for buying Premier League clubs, considering he is a top talent with two or more years left on his contract, as well as the ability to play off both flanks and up front. This valuation does not include market factors that could dictate an eventual price such as the real-time wants and needs of who is buying and selling, which could see PSG demand much more, but it helps put us in the ballpark.

When viewed through the lens of the most expensive wingers to sign for Premier League clubs (Jack Grealish for £100m in 2021, Antony for £82m in 2022, Jadon Sancho for £73m 2021, Nicolas Pepe for £72m in 2019 and Bryan Mbeumo for £71m in 2025), TFG’s valuation does not feel out of place.

Looking back to last summer, Liverpool signed Florian Wirtz for €136.3million (£116m) and Alexander Isak for a deal worth £130million ($176m).

Nobody can say whether a player is worth their transfer fee until they have played for their new club, but opinions before then will come from that individual’s CV, and Barcola’s is interesting.

Before the World Cup, some may have viewed the winger as a back-up option for PSG and France, but that is a narrow view of a player who is part of the best attacking forces in club and international football.

In his three seasons at PSG, Barcola made 26 starts in 39 appearances in 2023-24, 44 starts in 58 appearances in 2024-25 and 35 starts in 48 appearances in 2025-26.

The 2024-25 campaign was his strongest with 21 goals and 18 assists, but increasingly, discussions around Barcola have centred around inconsistencies in front of goal. Some of his biggest misses have come in the biggest games. He could have ended Arsenal’s Champions League hopes late in a semi-final first leg in 2025, but dragged a tame effort wide after nice link-up play.

His missed effort against Sweden in the World Cup this week after baiting two defenders also had flashes of his Champions League final miss against Inter last year.

But Barcola tends to find the net as often as he should over the course of a season. He scored 11 league goals from an expected goals tally of 10.9 in 2025-26, and 14 league goals from an xG of 13.6 the season before.

How the numbers come about is more important than the raw data, though.

He may not be as deadly as PSG team-mates Ousmane Dembele, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Desire Doue, but Barcola has an electricity in his play that is refreshing in a football climate where wingers head towards their own goal more often

Some trends that emerge with his goals are being in the right place at the right time, or using his pace to run in behind like he did to double France’s group-stage lead against Senegal last month. There is thought behind the runs he makes, as below you can see he recognises the opportunity to sprint into space as soon as Adrien Rabiot receives the ball, but also a nice drop of the shoulder to pull a defender out of position to burst past him in the next example.

There are questions over whether he would be granted the same space to exploit by Premier League defences, but that speed may also help to create more chances from breakaways.

In this year’s Champions League final, Barcola came off the bench and threatened Arsenal with two bursts in behind William Saliba late on. Liverpool are more accustomed to playing on the break, scoring seven league goals from fast breaks last season compared to Arsenal’s four, so adding Barcola to these situations would benefit both teams.

While it is often his dribbling that takes the breath away, Barcola is also capable of special strikes. He scored two goals from outside the box in a 2-0 win over Lens early last season, but a different pair of goals stood out more.

Quizzed about his inconsistent finishing before facing Chelsea in the Champions League round of 16, Barcola was blasé in front of the press, doing his talking on the pitch. One touch, and a bang with his left foot arrowing the ball into the roof of the net put PSG 1-0 up. A week later, one touch with his left foot, and a bang with his right, and PSG were 2-0 up on the night (en route to a 8-2 aggregate win).

As an Arsenal writer, the second goal brought flashbacks of a similar finish against Chelsea from Thierry Henry (both below).

While Barcola’s finishing levels out with expectations each season, maybe scoring harder chances to make up for the easier ones he has missed, there are other interesting trends about his output.

In his last season at Lyon and first with PSG, looking from a 10-game rolling average, the winger overperformed his xG for most of the season. In the last two years, when PSG have done the Ligue 1 and Champions League double twice, Barcola tends to overperform his xG in the first half of the season and underperform after the New Year.

That factors into some of his memorable misses coming in the latter stages of the Champions League, but also shows that those misses should not define him.

The majority of forwards fluctuate in their stats, and that is true in Barcola’s assist numbers from the last two seasons.

He created two chances per 90 minutes in Ligue 1 in each, but the volatility was shown in the contrast between his expected assists (xA) and actual assists. In 2024-25, his xA of 5.9 resulted in 10 league assists, but last term, 4.5 xA only earned him one assist in the league.

For the method behind the numbers, there does need to be consideration for the difference in playing style between PSG and most teams. Luis Enrique has built the most fluid attacking unit in club football, with wingers doubling on one flank and players across the team given licence to roam as long as they are in a position to press well when possession is lost.

With that, the chances and assists Barcola creates rarely come from crosses. In fact, last season in Ligue 1, he completed just five crosses (0.3 per 90). By comparison, Bukayo Saka completed 40 at Arsenal (1.6 per 90) and Mo Salah completed 20 at Liverpool (0.45 per 90). The lack of crossing from Barcola may not be down to a lack of ability, as seen with his crossed assist for Doue against Norway at the World Cup, but may be an area that needs to be developed.

As for the assists Barcola has earned in recent seasons, there will be no surprise that his blistering pace plays a big role, alongside his willingness to take on his man.

For a blend of these two attributes, below are two examples of moments that are almost second nature: using his first touch to beat a man (which he does to create PSG’s first goal in a 4-2 comeback win over Manchester City) and then another run behind into space.

Both these assists were for Dembele, and these square passes across the box are often how the pair combine for goals.

Other players will elicit different combinations. For example, everybody will remember Senny Mayulu’s goal in the 2025 Champions League final for his amazing smile while celebrating, but the one-two between him and Barcola had led to an almost identical goal against Strasbourg earlier that season (both below).

All these examples are from the 2024-25 season, but if you have a moment to look at the four Champions League assists Barcola made last season, they all look very similar.

That understanding that makes football look simple may not be as eye-catching as the ball-rolls, nutmegs and dummies, but can sometimes be more effective.

Barcola is 24 in September and more efficiency is what clubs will hope he brings into next season.

There is no doubt over his talent, but does he need to be the man out wide as opposed to one of a group to show that on a more consistent basis than he did last year? He has already shown this summer at the World Cup he can force himself into a starting XI among the world’s best after starting the tournament on the bench.

Some will scoff at PSG’s valuation in excess of the £116m agreed for Anderson, but in the current market that feels fair. The real question is how far north does that valuation go?

Whoever does go for Barcola — if anyone — it will take a massive effort, but as shown above, it could be worth it.