Cesc Fabregas' first game for Arsenal sparked a rivalry that will reignite on the League of Ireland sidelines this season.
Stephen O’Donnell was a team-mate of the Spaniard when he joined the Premier League club from Barcelona in September 2003.
And Fabregas’ first academy match for the Gunners was a behind-closed-doors clash against Ruaidhri Higgins’ Coventry City.
O’Donnell and Higgins then sparred against each other on the pitch as League of Ireland midfield rivals.
Apart from his year with Bohemians, Higgins was a Derry City stalwart when O’Donnell was winning leagues with Bohs and Shamrock Rovers.
They became team-mates and league winners at Dundalk in 2014 and will now spar on the sidelines after Higgins was last week appointed as Derry City’s new boss.
He was Ireland’s chief scout and opposition analyst up to that point but quit Stephen Kenny’s staff to take charge of the club he served for nine years as a player.
Higgins even made a winning start by scalping Sligo Rovers at the Showgrounds on Saturday and St Pat’s boss O’Donnell said: “I’m delighted for him.
“Ruaidhri would be one of my closest friends in football without a shadow of a doubt.
“We would have spoken when we were still playing, of what the next step was after playing and we had ambitions to become managers.
“Whether that ever became reality, you don't know but it would have been the pipe dream. Now we're both managers in the league so it's a little bit strange in that regard.
“But Ruaidhri always wanted to be a manager at some stage. It's his hometown club and he has massive ties with Derry having played there for so long.
“I'm delighted for him to get the opportunity and I'm wishing him the best, apart from four times in a season when we play them!
That Fabregas game was the only time O’Donnell, 35, remembers playing against Higgins, 36, as youngsters in England.
“We played Coventry in a bounce game at the training ground and we only found out we were playing against each other when it came up at Dundalk,” he continued.
“Higgs said he played in that Fabregas game too, that he was on the opposition side with Coventry.
“It was only a game to facilitate Fabregas. The rest of us were just pawns! He was signed for £3 million and everyone was eager to see what they had on their hands.”
But O’Donnell is not surprised that Higgins has made the managerial breakthrough as he regards him as a student of the game.
The Saints boss continued: “When he signed for Dundalk we struck it off straight away. You gravitate towards lads who have similar trains of thought with regards to football.
“He has a huge interest in watching football and taking things on board and is a thinker about the game.
“In dressing rooms there are all sorts of different characters.
“You have your thinkers of the game who never really park it and then you have other lads where the less thinking about football they do, it suits them.
“They are more off the cuff. Some boys would have more ability than you but they may not have a huge interest in watching football matches when they go home.
“But they can turn up on the day and produce the goods. Everyone is different and in that regards Ruaidhri would always have been a watcher of the game.
“Those lads tend to want to go on after their playing career and stay in the game whereas other lads are happy just having their playing career and that's it.”
Meanwhile, O'Donnell claims it is still too soon to say if the Saints are back.
After seven games, St Pat’s are riding high as joint leaders of the Premier Division alongside champions Shamrock Rovers.
They have yet to lose and have won five times going into Friday’s home clash with Longford Town.
But O’Donnell said: “It’s nowhere near a quarter of the season gone. We have to improve massively.
“You would have to be satisfied with your start but seven games gone is nothing really.
“I’m sure if you looked at the Premier League table in England after seven games this season it would be a lot different to what it is now.
“We’re just trying to get better every week. Every week throws up different challenges. As we see with the results in the league, there’s nothing taken for granted.
“On any given date if a team drops below a level they’ll get turned over and we’re no different.”
But O’Donnell has hailed the form of centre-back Lee Desmond who has been one of the league’s most consistent players this season.
“I can't think of a day when he hasn't brought it in regards to attitude and going about his business, and he has carried that into matches.
“He has become a leader and you forget he's only 25, but he's been in the league so long you'd think he was 28 or 29. He has been brilliant.”
