Kim Kallstrom reveals the Arsenal player that was better than Zlatan Ibrahimovic in training

Kallstrom was blown away by the professionalism he witnessed at Arsenal (Picture: Getty)



Kim Kallstrom has revealed that he thought his legendary Swedish teammate Zlatan Ibrahimovic was the best trainer he had ever seen… until he joined Arsenal and saw Mikel Arteta up close.

The former Lyon and Spartak Moscow midfielder had a brief spell on loan at the Emirates in 2014, making just four appearances for the club in all competitions – though has defended his time in north London after helping the team win the FA Cup.


Kallstrom enjoyed his short stay at Arsenal despite struggling with a back injury and says he was blown away by the attitude and work rate of Arteta, who is of course now managing the Gunners.



Speaking to the club’s official website, Kallstrom recalled: ‘I was surrounded by Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, these guys who were so skilful.


‘It was nice to see them every day at work. People are so professional.

‘I played alongside Zlatan Ibrahimovic for a long time and he’s a real pro, but then I came here and I saw how professional Mikel Arteta is… wow!

‘He is so committed to the game and so engaged with it as well, I learned a lot just from watching him.’

On his experiences at Arsenal, Kallstrom said: ‘I had signed for a few teams in my career but it was definitely a different approach going into the dressing room as a January loan signing.

‘Everyone there knew I was only there as a back-up option because they were lacking bodies so to speak. Outside of football, you don’t have a permanent residence, I just treated it like an adventure.

‘There were a lot of French players there and obviously the boss, lots of people around the club who could speak French too. I speak French because of my time at Lyon so that helped.

Kallstrom was blown away by Arteta’s attitude and work rate in training (Picture: Getty)


‘I’d made my name in France, so that made it easier because they recognised me – and Nicklas Bendtner was there so I could speak Swedish and Danish with him. It made it a bit easier to adapt fast.

‘There were also a couple of players who were injured at the same time as me. Aaron Ramsey was one of them.

‘In one way it was good to have that experience with an injury because you’re at the training ground a lot more and you meet all the people around the club. When the players left, I stayed after training to make sure I had a good rehab.’