In Zaragoza, where Ander Herrera has returned to the club that gave him his first senior stage, the midfielder has been looking back across a career that carried him through Bilbao, Manchester, Paris and beyond. Few players can draw on a dressing-room history spanning Lionel Messi, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Neymar, Sergio Ramos and Kylian Mbappé, and Herrera had little hesitation when asked to name the finest teammates he has known.
Speaking in a conversation with former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand, Herrera was challenged to select a five-a-side group from the players with whom he has shared a pitch. Goalkeepers were excluded from the exercise, with Ferdinand joking that they were not really footballers. Herrera laughed that he could not include David de Gea because “he will kill me”, before beginning his selection.
“Zlatan, Messi, Neymar,” Herrera said, immediately assembling a front line that prompted Ferdinand to suggest those three alone could form the core of the greatest team in history.
The Zaragoza midfielder then added Ramos, his former Spain teammate, and Mbappé, whom he played alongside at Paris Saint-Germain. Herrera’s first reserve was another major figure from his Manchester United years: Wayne Rooney.
“It is not bad, is it?” Herrera asked after completing the side. Ferdinand agreed, saying the selection might be the best team assembled during the programme.
For Herrera, the point was less about the hypothetical line-up than the scale of the company he has kept. “And I played with them. Incredible,” he said.
