Interview

'I'm very proud to be captain of this great club'

It's been a special week for Granit Xhaka.

Unai Emery confirmed that the Switzerland international would be our new club captain last Friday, responsible for heading up a leadership group of five first-team players.

 

Xhaka led us out in his new role for the first time at Old Trafford on Sunday, and is honoured to have been given the armband by our head coach.

 

"I'm very proud," he told Arsenal Player. "It's made me very happy because when I came here, I had a lot of experience before with the Switzerland national team and I was the captain in Germany as well.

 

"When I came here, there were a lot of great players, good personalities, and it was a big step for me to be the captain here as well. Now I'm the official captain here and it makes me very proud to be the captain of this great club."

 

So how did Xhaka find out that he would be our new club captain?

 

'The coach asked us to write five names, who we wanted to be the captains," he said. "Everything was discreet, so there were no names. You only wrote the five captains. In the end, I think the team, the players and of course the boss, decided who would be the first captain out of the five.

 

"Of course it's important that the other players believe in me and see how I work, how much I work. I'm a guy who wants to take all the players in one boat. We win together, we lose together, we win trophies together or we lose finals together, like in Baku.

 

"It's important that all the players - not only the players who play but the other players as well - are invited into our group to be happy, to speak with us if there are any problems. This is the role of a captain, to be strong and to be in front of the team. I think I'm a guy like this who can be in front of the team during the good times and the bad times."

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