Arsenal captain Cesc Fabregas has recalled how Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola lifted his spirits when he was a junior at the club.

When Fabregas's parents were divorcing and his morale was low, he received a surprise visitor.

"It was my old coach at the Barca youth team where I played with Gerard Pique and Lionel Messi - Rodolfo Borrell," Fabregas told the Daily Express. "He found out that I was handling the separation badly.

"I don't know how but possibly because he had seen I wasn't playing well. Pep is and had always been my idol, so they had got together and Pep signed me a Barca jersey which they framed and on it he had written, "One day you will be Barca's No4" [the nerve-centre position]. That helped enormously and I'll never forget it."