Sporting spotlight: Gaizka Mendieta

From the despair of successive Champions League final defeats to the joy of lifting Middlesbrough's first major silverware, BBC Sport puts Gaizka Mendieta, 38, under the sporting spotlight.

Capped 40-times by Spain, Mendieta was the main man in a Valencia side that challenged for honours at home and abroad before he made a £29m transfer to Lazio. After his big-money Italian move turned sour, he played with Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol at Barcelona and was then part of a period of unprecedented success on Teesside.

What do you do now that you aren't playing?

I work as a pundit for a few different television channels and am looking to do my coaching badges in the summer. Apart from that, I look after some businesses and I like to DJ sometimes. My other ion in life is music - rock and soul.

You are still based in England, why do you like it here?

I have lived in England for 10 years now, and love the culture and the way people respect former players.

My partner, Helen, is English and I love a lot of things about this country. I like fish and chips at the right moments, Helen cooks pies and cakes and we sometimes have a roast dinner on Sundays.

I have adopted a lot of English traditions. I really enjoy my 'cuppa tea' in the mornings and now when I am in Spain I struggle when they eat so late at night.

Joey Barton and your former Middlesbrough manager Steve McLaren have both famously started to adopt foreign accents, has that happened to you?

You cannot help to pick up the accent wherever you are. I find myself now saying things like "innit, mate".

To talk about your playing career, what did it feel like to lose successive Champions League finals with Valencia in 2000 and 2001?

Back then, it was very painful but now we realise how difficult it is to achieve a Champions League final place and we did that two years in a row. In perspective, we can enjoy that achievement more as when you lose finals you do not appreciate them enough - truly, it was an incredible achievement.

You left Valencia in 2001 for Lazio for what was then the sixth-highest transfer fee ever paid for a player. Now that you are retired, how do you look back on the size of that deal?

Transfer prices went crazy in those times due to television putting in a lot of money. It is crazy how much clubs pay for players, but it is part of the show and part of the service.

It is unfair to talk about just football, other sports such as Formula 1 and tennis attract a lot of money.

Why did it not work out for you in Italy?

It was my first time abroad, I did not play regularly and I did not get the know the football. It was a very difficult year as the chairman changed, the coach changed twice and I did not get any tranquillity.

You then moved on loan to Barcelona a year later. Were people at the club talking about Lionel Messi even then despite him being so young?

Lionel Messi was a little kid when I was there, but the training facilities were separate between the first team and the academy so I did not see him play. I the Argentines talking about the 'new Diego Maradona' like they always did when a new youngster emerged, but that time they were right!

How did your move to Middlesbrough occur in 2003?

[Then manager] Steve McLaren came to Rome and we had a chat about the project at Middlesbrough. I did not think much about it at the time, but after awhile I thought, "why not">