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This is Rebecca Loew or Rebecca Loewa if you listen to suboptimal radio and you are listening to Men in Blazers on the NBC Sports Network.

Welcome to a Men in Blazers pod special. A conversation with a remarkable man whom I've long admired.

One of the premier league's most beloved characters. Revealed for his style of play on the field. He's a footballer with zeal, intelligence and the ability to both create goals and score them.

And the way he's elected to carry himself off it as a gent who loves experiencing the world around him and anyone who follows our guest on Instagram will be aware of the extent to which he just adores touring Britain.

He's a huge fan of his music and he's been watching him in consuming books, movies, music, culture. On a weekly basis he faithfully records his feelings on a blog,

and when all those he signs off in the same magical way hugs which is more adorable than he walks winning the Battle of Endor.

Last week two days before he won the EFL Cup with Manchester United at Wembley he joined us from his home in the north of England to talk about all of this and where to find the best Spanish food in Manchester.

I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.

It's a delight to welcome to the pod and who's won the World Cup, the Champions League and who's now in the midst of a four month unbeaten run in the Premier League with Manchester United.

We welcome to the pod. Mr. Juan Mata.

Thank you very much for your supposing for me to be with you.

Oh, Juan, I love having you. I want to go right back from the outset to the very beginning to your youth growing up in Oviedo in northern Spain playing football on heavy, muddy, rainy fields, conditions in which it should have been impossible to learn to pass the ball.

But you did. You're telling to play that killer final pass. Is that natural? Did you just grow up with that vision and ability or did it come from being coached?

I think there's a bit of both in a way you have to be born with this understanding for the game. But I think you can practice it as well.

The training has been always a big part of my career and what I always try to improve.

You're so into Real Madrid at the age of just 15 every football is dream. Yet Real squad, it was stopped with the likes of Zidane, Beckham, Raoul.

You couldn't crack the first team and were sold to Valencia. When you look back on that Real Madrid rejection now, Juan, does it still hurt?

Are you grateful to have your eyes open to professional disappointment of the young age retrospectively?

I just have a feeling of being grateful towards Real Madrid. I arrived when I was 15 years old. I stayed there for four years until I was 19.

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