Mikel Arteta has revealed that he has reached out to Pep Guardiola after the Spaniard lost his mother to coronavirus.
The Manchester City boss had been one of football’s biggest contributors to the efforts to stop the pandemic from ravaging the world following a one million euro donation to help his home country of Spain to fight the virus.
However, his elderly mother lost her battle for survival after contracting the deadly disease.
Mikel Arteta, who was Guardiola’s assistant at Manchester City from 2016 to 2019, has spoken to his compatriot since the bereavement.
He revealed that Guardiola had been worried about his parents contracting the virus all along because they were among the most vulnerable.
Arteta, whose wife also contracted the virus, then went on to say how well he knew the Guardiola family before sending a heartfelt message to them.
He said as quoted by the Express: “I’ve been in touch with him… he was worried about his parents before because they’re getting older and they’d been trying to isolate. It’s really sad news. I know the family really well. I send my condolences to them and hopefully, they can go through that all together.”
Arteta is now fully recovered from the virus and the Spaniard will be hoping that the Premier League can resume soon so that he can continue what he loves to do.
Poor Pep, such sad times……