Héctor Bellerín says leaving Arsenal ‘scary’ as Betis prepare to face former club at Aviva Stadium
Héctor Bellerín, the Real Betis full-back, said he will face his former club Arsenal in a pre-season friendly at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday and described leaving Arsenal as “scary” and painful. The 31-year-old spoke about his move from the Emirates, his relationship with Mikel Arteta and his life in Seville in an interview published on August 5, 2026.
Bellerín recalled an early, formative meeting with Mikel Arteta when he was 18 or 19, in which Arteta was sitting with a financial adviser and questioned him about his spending. “When I arrived that afternoon, he was sitting with a financial adviser and they started to ask: ‘How much do you spend on this?’ ‘How much do you spend on that?’.” Bellerín said he felt “embarrassed, ashamed” but left “with a lesson in humility and affection,” and quoted Arteta telling him: “If you do the same for a teammate one day I’m happy.”
He outlined the long-term bond with Arsenal teammates and staff, saying: “I have an incredible feeling of love for the club,” and naming Bukayo Saka, Ben White, the manager, coaches and staff among those he still feels close to. He said London provided him with room to grow: “London gave me that space where I could explore my world, mature.” He added that he had been at Arsenal through Mikel’s transition into management and celebrated winning the FA Cup in that period.
Bellerín described his early years in England, lodging with the Twitching family in Enfield at 16 and arriving from Barcelona with Jon Toral. He recalled cultural details — roast dinners and the Oyster card Liam Brady gave them — and the modest wages: “We were earning €400 a month.” He said he lived in many different places in London and spent the pandemic in a 17th-century farm in St Albans.
On the shift from teammate to player under Arteta, Bellerín called the change “strange” and said the face-to-face honesty between them helped. He credited Arteta with reshaping his game: “I was with him a year and a half [as coach] and I could say that 80% of my football came through Mikel’s mind.” He added: “Bloody hell, I owe Mikel so much.”
Explaining why he left Arsenal for Betis, Bellerín spoke of a growing disconnect rather than a single incident: “There’s not a specific reason. Something happened but it’s not a thing; it’s more that there’s a kind of disconnect in which I felt that I could no longer help the club and the club could no longer help me. We managed that in the most amicable way.” He said leaving a club like Arsenal was frightening and emotional: “When you leave a club like Arsenal, it’s scary, eh. Scary. It hurts, mate: look, however much you know that your moment is over, it was your home.”
He described finding a fit at Betis and in Seville, citing his family connection to the club and the dressing room culture: “What most struck me was the dressing room. There is something ‘horizontal’ in the relationship with other employees.” He discussed his wider interests — writing classes, fashion designing, veganism and environmental activism — and criticised the sport’s excesses, saying football often made his “blood boil” and calling it “the ‘maximum exponent of greed’.” He also acknowledged the recent success of Arsenal: “We’re in the Champions League, we won the cup. I’m in a very good moment. The Champions League final hurt but it’s important that doesn’t overshadow Arsenal’s progress.”
Bellerín will meet Arsenal at the Aviva Stadium on Wednesday in the pre-season friendly, a fixture he has never played against his old club after a knee injury while on loan at Sporting prevented an earlier chance. He said facing the side led by his former teammate and friend is personally significant: “To be able to face them now, the best team in Europe, is the business.”
