Hector Bellerín is one of the hottest prospects in the Premier League and at just 22 years of age is already Arsenal's first-choice right-back, but there's much more than meets the eye with the youngster. Ever since he broke into the first team four years ago, the Spaniard has never looked back, and is firmly part of Arsène Wenger's best starting XI ever.
The world of football certainly knows him for his electric pace, dashing looks and stellar performances in an Arsenal shirt. The Spaniard is truly a natural-born star both on the pitch and off it. Arsène Wenger has nurtured his footballing ability as well as his personal character. Now the youngster resembles a talent ready to become one of the best in his position.
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Here's five facts you didn't know about Hector Bellerín.
#5 He used to be a winger
His blistering pace and fanciful ball control could have given it away, but before his time in London, Hector Bellerín was a winger in Barcelona. It was only when he came to North London that he was transformed into a full-back. It was Wenger himself who made the final call on whether to turn him into a right-back or not.
The Frenchman personally assigned assistant coach Steve Bould to have one on one sessions with the youngster to help ease his transition to defence. Bould had to teach him how to defend from scratch.
Now Hector Bellerín, alongside an elite few in the world, is a world-class full-back. No wonder Barcelona are trying so hard to bring him back to the Camp Nou.
#4 Ex-Watford boss didn't rate him
During the winter of 2013, Arsène Wenger sent the highly-rated 18-year old on loan to Championship side Watford. In that time the Spaniard only made 8 appearances and many Arsenal fans couldn't understand the reason why. As it was clear the youngster wouldn't be getting the minutes he needed, Wenger recalled him after only two months.
A few years later, Watford captain Troy Deeney gave us insight into why the La Masia graduate played so few games at Vicarage Road. He revealed that the manager at the time, Giuseppe Sannino, found the Spaniard to be too lightweight in the tackle and not defensively suitable to play for his side.
It's safe to say that Sannino didn't rate the Arsenal defender in the slightest. After Wenger recalled the youngster that season, he played in a Champions League match away at Borussia Dortmund, where he had an appalling performance.
However, as with many things, Wenger was proven right about the quality of the Spanish defender. Bellerín now stands tall as one of the best young defenders in not only the Premier League but world football.
#3 He's faster than Theo Walcott
Ever since he arrived at the club back in 2006, Theo Walcott has been the fastest player in North London. The Englishman broke the club speed record upon arrival, even quicker than Arsenal legend Thierry Henry. But alas, every record must meet its equal and every record-breaker must create his moment. Here's where Bellerin steps in.
Arsenal's standard measure of tracking speed has always been over 40 metres. The 40m distance is short enough to measure a player's acceleration but also long enough to assess a player's top speed.
Theo Walcott's record at 40 metres was 4.78 seconds but the Spaniard topped that with a 4.77 time back in 2015. However, reports now suggest that Bellerín has shaved that time down to an incredible 4.42, however, neither he or the club have confirmed this.
#2 He's a big lover of Call of Duty
The life of a footballer can be very hectic and there are not many things they can do in their alone time to distract them from their fame. For Hector Bellerín, when's he's not tearing up the right flank at the Emirates, he's aggressively tapping the buttons of his Playstation console.
As a 16-year-old boy moving to a foreign country, Bellerín found life in England challenging at the best of times. He needed help to deal with the language barrier and tough training regime of the Arsenal academy. So what did the 16-year old do? He turned to video games.
It was his U18s teammates that initially introduced him Call of Duty, and five years down the line he's hooked on the popular first-person shooter video game. Bellerín claims that in the first two years after he began playing the game, he would play it all day long after training.
In an interview with the Sun, Bellerín said the following. "It's a stress release for me. I don't get that much time to play, so when I'm with my mates, I usually only play CoD."
Ever since he fell in love with the game, he's been to every launch every year and has become an unofficial ambassador for the franchise.
#1 He's enrolled in an online University course
So often or not you hear people branding all footballers with the same brush, the brush that they're not the smartest and that they were lucky to be physically talented. People recognise footballers for what they do with their feet, not for what they possess in their brains. They're deemed as unintelligent, however, Hector Bellerín represents a new breed of footballer.
The youngster revealed last year that he had enrolled in an online course at the University of Pennsylvania, an ivy league school in Philadelphia. Bellerin is pursuing a diploma in marketing, and watches lectures online and also completes exams on the school's website. The youngster admitted recently that he was finding the course incredibly demanding, but it was that aspect of the course that he most enjoyed.
He said that it has instilled a type of discipline in him, a discipline that he could use on the pitch.
As if a marketing diploma wasn't enough, the Spaniard is already considering enrolling in an accounting or business diploma after he finishes this one.
