What if you don t play football? Ta Shuai: When I was 14, I would have chosen tennis. If I don’t play well in football, I can blame my teammates.

Sports     1:36am, 18 October 2025

Arteta was interviewed by Sky Sports and answered questions raised by fans. In it he was asked what his career would have been if he had not become a footballer.

Arteta: "It's hard to imagine because I always said that football allowed me to travel around the world and do what I love. So I had to find another passion. If I hadn't chosen football at that time, maybe I would have played tennis."

"Because at the age of 14, I really had to make a decision, is to become a professional Tennis player or football player, I chose the easier one, because you can blame 10 other teammates when you don't play well (laughing)."

"I don't know, I might be engaged in a related industry, maybe in a health-related field, because I was also interested in that when I was young."