10 July 2023 , 07:30
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Gaizka Mendieta spent the latter days of his career at Middlesbrough, now he's ensuring Londoners are served fine Spanish food.
The midfielder was a major coup for the Riverside club when he joined them in 2003 on loan before making his move permanent a year later. He made 83 appearances in his four years with the Premier League club, later hanging up his boots in 2007. The classy playmaker is now part of a group producing high quality cuisine from his homeland.
Mendieta is one of several investors in the popular chain Iberica, which works with Michelin-starred chef Nacho Manzano. Branches are based in several up market London locations including Canary Wharf, Marylebone, Fitzrovia and Victoria. The 40-capped international is also a backer of a new paella-focused London eatery, Arros QD, as well as a third venture, Mercado Central in Cambridge.
He told City AM: “I saw the business opportunity. I wanted to be involved in something that was real. I love not only the food but the learning. I try to be involved as much as I can in the projects, from selecting venues, how we design the space – not so much on the chefs – but I like to have input.
“I’ve always been intrigued by business. With food, I was a client of Iberica and over time I got to know some of the shareholders. The opportunity came there and I took it. The food took me to the business, but I love both.”
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Mendieta also went on to add: “People from Valencia who live in London come and congratulate us. Believe me, for Valencia people to do that means a lot. I’ve grown up with paella. I never thought it would be part of my business life eventually, but there you are. When they talked to me about paella, I said ‘hey, wait, I know a little bit about that’."
The Spaniard enjoyed an impressive playing career, spending time at Lazio, Valencia and Barcelona during his peak. Whilst at Valencia he won several honours and played in successive Champions League finals, scoring in the second as the Spanish club were edged out on penalties by Bayern Munich.
Mendieta had brief spells in Italy and at the Nou Camp before he helped Middlesbrough win their first ever piece of silverware in the 2004 League Cup final. “I’d been at Valencia, Barca, Lazio, always looking for the big clubs so I thought why not go to not such a big club and do something different,” he said previously on The Broken Metatarsal Podcast.
“Try a different approach, go to a club where it’s actually trying to make history, trying to change their history, trying to achieve big things for a club at that level and become part of that although I didn’t give it much thought at the first meeting we had, it grew on me as I waited on all the options that I had.
“In England, there was a couple of clubs but the one that really caught my eye was Boro so that’s when I decided okay let’s do this new project.”