Gaizka Mendieta has named Declan Rice as the Arsenal player most likely to decide the Champions League final against Paris-Saint Germain, putting the midfielder at the centre of a night that could deliver Mikel Arteta’s side a historic league and European Cup double. With Arsenal already in Budapest, the message from one of Europe’s most recognisable former midfielders was clear: if the final turns on one player, it is Rice.
Mendieta delivered that judgment while speaking at Gatorade’s 5v5 global grassroots football initiative for teenagers aged 14 to 16, where he was asked to look ahead to Arsenal’s biggest match of the season. He did not hesitate. “Rice. I love how he controls the tempo and controls the game,” Mendieta said, adding that he sees the England international as “huge on set pieces” and as a player who can lead when the stakes are highest.
That view cuts against the pre-match focus that has settled on Arsenal’s full backs and whether they can stay fit enough to deal with PSG’s wide threat, particularly Ousmane Dembele and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia. Mendieta instead argued that the decisive edge may come from the centre of the team, not the flanks, and said Arsenal have already seen Rice’s influence in both the Champions League and the Premier League over the past two years.
“Obviously on set pieces he’s huge. We saw it last year, especially in the Champions League, and we saw it obviously in the Premier League,” Mendieta said. “As a leader, he can be that player. I think in these kind of games, these kind of players who are leaders, you need them to step up.” For Arsenal, that is the argument in a sentence: in a final of this size, the player who can control the rhythm and tilt dead-ball moments may matter more than the one making recovery runs at full back.
Mendieta also framed the final as a test of belief in Arteta’s work, saying the club must trust the project and the coach they chose in the first place. “The word I have in my head is patience. It doesn't exist in football. You have to trust the project, you have to trust the coach that you hired in the first place for the reasons you did,” he said. Arsenal’s task now is to turn that patience into one night of control, and if Rice matches Mendieta’s reading, the final may be remembered as the game in which the midfielder carried more weight than the headline match-up ever did.
