It may seem like only yesterday that Hector Bellerin emerged at Arsenal, a footballer of rare confidence on and off the pitch. But the world of football moves at breakneck speed; in little over half a decade the Spaniard has gone from bright young prospect eager to learn from Mikel Arteta to one of his most valued lieutenants, a new leader for the young generation at the Emirates Stadium and beyond.
As role models Bellerin is certainly well-placed to teach the next generation.
Arsenal’s vice captain has never been afraid to show his real self. During the low moments of his career he has taken supporters into his confidence, most notably sharing the deep emotional turmoil he felt in the hours after rupturing his anterior cruciate ligament in a win over Chelsea in January 2019.
Fans see more to Bellerin than just his feats on the field. From fashion to photography the 25-year-old is, if not an open book, then at least someone with the confidence to be who they are.
As he himself acknowledges that is no easy feat.
Now the Spaniard is doing what he can to support his fellow professionals in navigating the world away from the pitch. Bellerin took on a difficult role in Arsenal’s pay negotiations with the first team last month, serving as the bridge between the club hierarchy and squad and helping to secure the Premier League’s only agreement on a wage cut so far.
Meanwhile through his role in sports management firm B-Engaged he and his 15 colleagues are able to guide the off-field work of young footballers from across the game. Arsenal team-mate Reiss Nelson has been involved with the company as well as some of the biggest names and brightest prospects in the global game: Thiago, Serge Gnabry and Rhian Brewster among others.
For Bellerin, who despite his youth finds himself something of an elder statesman in an Arsenal squad where he is one of the longest-serving players, helping these youngsters find their place in the game matters greatly.
Bellerin tells football.london: “I think it’s really important to support young players to be who they are, it can be hard coming into a dressing room when you have senior players questioning why you are doing something or wearing something but it’s so important that the next generation are true to themselves.
“If I can help them do that then I am very happy to do so.”
It has been nearly six years since Bellerin found himself thrust into the spotlight at Arsenal, a teenager tasked with holding Borussia Dortmund stars Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Henrikh Mkhitaryan at bay in a side marshalled by captain Mikel Arteta.
The Spaniard, now Arsenal boss, was among those who played a key role in Bellerin’s career in those formative years.
Even as a teenage right-back new to the senior setup, Bellerin could tell Arteta was destined for a career in the dugout.
“I was lucky that I had my family around me, my best friend, he’s someone I had known since the start, he was actually the one that told me to start looking at investments and stuff,” Bellerin explains.
“From the football side, Mikel Arteta when he was at Arsenal as a player would give me financial advice and even life advice. Even then he was showing the leadership qualities back then that makes him a manager.
“But I feel so, so lucky that everyone around me knew when to stop me doing certain things and were able to have hard conversations with me.
“If you don’t have people that can be honest with you, then you won’t ever grow as a person. I was very lucky with the people I had around me and it means the world to me to have young players looking up to me in the same way.”
Bellerin’s passions are numerous but a through line that seems to follow them all is familial ties. His father, a diehard Real Betis supporter, lit the footballing fire that burns within him on through weekend kickabouts at a nearby school. Meanwhile his fondness for fashion has deep roots going back to his grandparents, who ran a store that his mother also worked at.
That environment would appear to have fostered an independence and confidence in Bellerin that allowed him to move to England at just 16 years of age, one that also enabled him to develop as a footballer and a person without fear of how his parents would react.
“What I am realising for young footballers’ biggest pressure outside the sport is family. I say it because I didn’t have that from my own family to perform, I put the pressure on myself to be the best I could for them. They never once asked me to do something that I was never asked to do by the coach, they never made a decision themselves about my career without me.
“It was always for the best for me. A lot of parents and families want their kids to be the next [Lionel] Messi but by putting so much pressure on them you’re actually holding them back. They should be enjoying their football at that age, just learning about the game.
“With all that pressure, it can break these young players, they can’t deal with it and they are finished with the sport.”
Bellerin has had to deal with that pressure throughout his time at Arsenal. In 2017 he found himself a lightning rod for fan frustration at Arsene Wenger, most notably when a section of travelling support booed him during a defeat to Crystal Palace.
Soon he would be vindicated, hitting an impressive period of form in the Frenchman’s final season and particularly Unai Emery’s brief tenure. Meanwhile his influence grew off the pitch as he became a senior voice in the dressing room, culminating in his being made vice-captain in October.
He faced a very different kind of pressure after his ACL rupture with months ahead of him without football. That did, however, allow him to further broaden his work off the pitch, working on projects as diverse as new tailoring for Arsenal’s mens and womens squad, fundraising for the WWF and shining a spotlight on problems in the dairy industry.
It is this sphere that Bellerin’s work with B-Engaged fits. Rather than just working with a sports marketing firm he chose to take a stake in the firm, which has grown in four-and-a-half years into an organisation with offices in London and Barcelona engaging over 100million fans around the world.
He says: “What am I most proud of when it comes to B-Engaged? I think the fact that it’s something I have managed to grow from scratch with my best mate, something we are both passionate about to where it is now.
“It’s really been a beautiful experience and I think we have a really exciting future with it. We now employ 15 members of staff with everyone there sharing the same mindset. They all want to learn and grow with the company, everyone is young and it’s really great.”
Could it be that Bellerin’s post-footballing career takes him further along this path?
“When your career ends, you need to make sure you have the void of football covered. This can be with your investments, making sure that throughout your career you have made smart investments from a young age rather than later on in your career.
“I want to make sure that whatever happens after football, I can replace it with something that still brings me the same joy.”
Fortunately for Arsenal it will be a while before their vice-captain has to consider what comes after football. What is clear, though, is that during and after his playing career Bellerin is ready to be there for those following in his footsteps.
