Gaizka Mendieta was the creative fulcrum of Valencia during the club’s turn-of-the-millennium resurgence, captaining the club to the 1999 Copa del Rey and to back-to-back Champions League finals.
His form at the Mestalla led to persistent speculation that some of Europe’s biggest teams were looking to sign him, with Lazio eventually landing the 40-time Spain international in the summer of 2001 in a £29million move.
That made Mendieta the sixth-most expensive player ever at the time, as the Italian side saw off a number of big-name suitors.
Mendieta on the offers he received to leave Valencia
“Offers came in – some were rejected by the club, some by me, others jointly,” Mendieta recalls to FourFourTwo. “The most famous was from Real Madrid.
“When they became interested in 2001, I knew Valencia wouldn’t let me go for less than my release clause, which was €60 million, and Real weren’t going to pay that for me. If they had triggered it, the debate would have shifted: would I have gone? But it never got to that point.”
When the Bilbao-born playmaker did leave Valencia, did the price tag weigh on him?
“It never caused me anxiety or pressure,” he adds. “I know players who have suffered from that, but thankfully I didn’t. I never thought, ‘If I cost this much, I must perform to this level.’ I was always the one demanding the most of myself in training and competition, regardless of the transfer fee. The problem at Lazio was that I never got continuity.”
Medieta did not gel in Italy, playing just one season at Lazio before being loaned out to Barcelona.
“There were too many changes,” he admits. “The club brought in five or six players after a successful spell and lacked patience. The coach had just arrived too. Results didn’t come and it took a toll, on the new arrivals as well as those already there.
“If you look at the squad, it was incredible, but we never managed to gel. I arrived at the end of August and by that winter window they already wanted me gone, despite the money they’d paid. Honestly, it still surprises me today."
Medieta faced more of the same at the Camp Nou, with Barcelona limping to a sixth-place finish in La Liga.
“It was similar to what I’d experienced at Lazio,” he admits. “Several presidents in a single season, three coaches and plenty of talent, but no stability. Barça were at the end of a cycle – Joan Laporta was about to come in as president and start a new project.
“I had no chance of staying. We sat down and spoke with the new board, but they wanted to make a fresh start and moving on from loanees was easy.”
