Robinho, Tevez and Balotelli have come and gone but I'm the survivor...cult hero Zabaleta on his love affair with Manchester City



‘Always try to be yourself, but if you can’t be yourself, then be Pablo Zabaleta.’ – Anon.

According to Jamie Carragher on Sky this week, nobody grows up wanting to be a full back. No glory to be had there, after all.

There are plenty in Manchester, though, who would like to be Pablo Zabaleta, the dream, model professional who has emerged from the shadows to become the latest Manchester City cult hero.

Cult hero: Pablo Zabaleta has risen from to fan favourite at Manchester City

Key man: The Argentine remains a constant in the side despite the many players who have arrived at the club in his five years

He doesn’t deny it. Player of the Year at City last season, Zabaleta has a new contract and the vice-captaincy to prove there is worth to be found in efficiency.



‘Yeah, I saw that quote,’ Zabaleta conceded, blowing out his cheeks. ‘Maybe it was one of the supporters. I don’t really know where it came from but, yeah, I know what it means.

‘It’s good. It makes me feel proud of myself when I see something like that. I don’t know. It means much. Maybe, sometimes, you know, people think… it’s not about how good you are as a player but it’s about how you are off the pitch as well.

‘It can make you a better person. People know me. I’m a quiet guy. I just try to help.’

Last man: Zabaleta was the last player to be signed before the Arab riches arrived - Robinho was signed two days after he was

Zabaleta has been a City player for five years. Signed by Mark Hughes in August 2008, he was the last one through the door before Arab riches arrived two days later.

‘There is me, Vincent Kompany, Micah Richards and Joe Hart left,’ he said, smiling. ‘I call us the survivors.

‘So much happened at that time it was amazing. Two days after I arrived we signed Robinho.

‘In the dressing room we wrote “Messi” on one of the lockers just in case. It’s still empty if he wants it…’

During his first two years in Manchester, Zabaleta lived in a flat in the fashionable but unfussy suburb of Didsbury. Across the street was comfortably the area’s worst pub, the Barleycorn.

Happy couple: Zabaleta and his wife Christel at a charity event at Old Trafford cricket ground (left) and showing off their rings after their 2013 wedding in Argentina (right)



Survivors: Zabaleta refers to Joe Hart, Micah Richards, Vincent Kompany and himself as 'the survivors'



‘We used to go there and play pool,’ Zabaleta added. ‘We used to go and watch football too as I didn’t have Sky. It was a real City pub so I used to like it.

‘I had a fantastic time there. I used to play pool with my girlfriend — now my wife — and with a friend who was here for the first year.

‘We used to have a siesta and then say, “Well what are we going to do now?” Most days it was pool in the Barleycorn.

There was that other pub near there, the Nelson. I didn’t go in it but every time I used to drive past they would all be there outside. All the City fans. They would wave at me.’

Zabaleta recalled this story as we discussed longevity at football clubs and the problems foreign players have when they can’t — or won’t — adapt to the English culture.

The Argentinian does not pretend to like everything about his adopted home. His wife, journalist and model Christel Castano, reminds him every day how bad the weather is. ‘What can I say?’ he laughed. ‘She is right!’

Opener: Zabaleta scores the first goal against QPR - the match where City won the title in the dying seconds

The difference, though, is that Zabaleta didn’t cut and run when Roberto Mancini bought the German Jerome Boateng to play in his position in 2010, nor when Richards returned to prominence two seasons ago.



He didn’t complain when Chelsea’s Florent Malouda gave him a black eye on his debut and his response to sitting through a Hughes team-talk he didn’t understand was immediately to request English lessons.

In many ways, Zabaleta is popular for what he isn’t as much as for what he is. Certainly his views on summer malcontents such as Wayne Rooney and Luis Suarez are clear.

‘It’s important players have respect for the club and also to the fans because, if you are a player who wants to leave, then the way you do it should be right,’ he said. ‘You have to respect the club that has made the players as big in the football world as they are.

‘Obviously, in every organisation there are things that nobody knows about but I think that, if you are happy or not, the first thing you must do is respect players, people, staff…everything. If you want to go somewhere else and be happy, then that’s perfect. But if the club wants you to stay then you should accept that and try to refocus again. You should work as hard as you have ever done.

Donations: Manchester City have donated more than 2,000 items of kit and memorabilia since the end of last season

‘It’s hard, very hard to come here (as a foreigner). It’s completely different. I remember when I first came, it was hard to relax off the pitch. And it’s also hard on the pitch.

‘But for a foreign player to come here, the first thing you must do is try to speak some English. We aren’t going to speak perfect English but we must try. It’s a mistake not to.



‘I remember my first game, Mark Hughes was talking to me in the meeting and I was saying all the time “Yeah, yeah” but the fact is that I didn’t really understand him. You then feel bad.

‘After that first game against Malouda, my eye was brown and swollen and Hughes came to me and said, “Welcome to the Premier League”. I went home that night and I was, like, “Wow, what was that?”

‘But you just have to go home and come back ready next time.’ At City there has been some collective regrouping since last season’s dismal title defence. A new coach, Manuel Pellegrini, has spent almost £100m on new players and tomorrow brings a home game against champions and neighbours Manchester United.

Last season was a tough one. How players like Zabaleta coped with the internal bickering that characterised much of Mancini’s final season we can only guess. This time round, the 28-year-old star knows things must improve.

New direction: Manchester CIty have a new manager and have brought in more than £100m worth of talent to regain the Premier League title

‘Let’s be honest, we didn’t perform,’ he said. ‘It wasn’t the best, was it? We were too far from it, inconsistent.

‘It’s true that United were not the greatest United team but they won the League very easily.

‘It was bad from us but we want the title back again and that is what we are working for. I think we are learning about our mistakes and everything that has happened before. We try to do better and I think we will. Every player who comes to this club, we know they have the quality to be a City player.

‘But it’s important also to be strong as a club and to have other qualities and a team spirit. We have not always had that like we should.

‘I think football is 70 per cent mentality and 30 per cent quality. But the first bit takes time and it can be a problem.’



Failure: Last season's defence of their title was dismal

A relationship that began with an argument culminated in a summer wedding for Zabaleta and Castano in June.

Endearingly, the couple see their immediate future in the North West and Zabaleta talks like a man deeply embedded in his football club.

Zabaleta is the oldest of four brothers, whose mother died when he was 15. By then he was living in Buenos Aires, having left to join the San Lorenzo club when was 12. ‘I had to mature quickly,’ he reflected. ‘You just have to do everything yourself. You don’t have your friends or your family to help.

Early career: Zabaleta was signed from Real Sociedad, the town where he met his wife

‘There was like a village next to the stadium for 40 or 50 young people, for players who had come from outside of Buenos Aires. We did all the jobs for the older players, cleaning and everything.



‘It made you feel happy, though, because, when you are a kid, you will do anything, won’t you?’

It was while subsequently playing at Espanyol in Spain that Zabaleta met and dated Castano. The early signs were not good.

‘Yes, we argued that first night,’ he said. ‘She loves football. She is a journalist and is a big fan of Espanyol.

‘The team were not in a good moment and she was telling me what we should do to improve and saying that we must play better.



'I was, like, “Calm down”. We are really happy here now.’ Early in her time in Manchester, Castano made ripples locally with some sharp comments about the weather and her refusal to contemplate eating fish in batter.

‘When we lived in the flat, one of the neighbours used to go for fish and chips every day and we used to see him in the lift,’ Zabaleta said, laughing.

‘Every day it was fish and chips! So we tried it once and it was not good. It’s not very healthy, is it?

‘That pub I told you about has been knocked down now. There is a restaurant there. Sometimes we go to the restaurant. We like it.

‘But when I go to that restaurant with my wife, I remind her of the games of pool... and the fish and chips.’

Zabaleta misses some of last season’s team-mates. Mention of Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli provoked generous responses.



‘Carlos is doing well and he has scored a few goals,’ said his international colleague. ‘To be honest, he is a great player and I really miss him as a striker.



Missing them: Zabaleta is pleased Carlos Tevez and Mario Balotelli are doing well, but misses them at City



‘I saw Mario on TV and he is playing fantastic for Milan so I’m really happy for him. He is a great player. He needs to focus because, if he does, he can become one of the best.’ Already, though, Zabaleta has an eye on City’s future and is a regular at the club’s reserve games. ‘When I was young, it was just fantastic if a first-team player came to watch your match,’ he said. ‘It’s a great support for the young players.



‘They are here every day. They may not be training with us but they will be having food from the same table, so it’s good that we watch them and support them and know them.’

Happy to contribute to the current debate about diving — ‘If you do it often here then fans will just kill you’ — his priority is seeing his adopted club move forward this season. If he wins the Player of the Year award again then he knows something will be wrong.

Expectation: Zabaleta expects Aguero to score 25 goals a season

Honours: Yaya Toure, or Aguero, should be pushing for player of the year honours at City, rather than the right back

‘To be honest, you expect the big players to get that honour,’ he said. ‘When you are a full back you expect them to do things — Sergio to get 25 goals, Yaya the same, Joe Hart to be the best.

‘The fans gave me that honour last season because I was a consistent player and maybe they think it’s important.

‘But I expect the attacking players to get the honour this season because, to be successful, I know we need them to always be in their best moment this time.’