The way Mikel Arteta tells it, he was man of the match. However, the absence of YouTube footage means that it will be hard to verify his claims. And, for what it’s worth, the reporter in Berlin that day for Catalan newspaper Mundo Deportivo, Joan Domenech, says he remembers nothing about the performance of the 17-year-old in Barcelona’s 2-1 defeat.
The significance of this otherwise forgotten pre-season friendly in Germany against Hertha Berlin was that Arteta was playing for the Barca first team. This was the culmination of a dream, the reason why he had left his San Sebastian home at the age of 14 to cry himself to sleep in the dormitories of the Barca academy, known as La Masia.