I felt embarrassed after Arsenal exit, but then won the league alongside Granit Xhaka and am back at Emirates as title winner
Dealing with rejection is one of the toughest parts of being a footballer, especially when you're young.
So when Nathan Tella was released by Arsenal at the age of 17, the winger was at a loss for what to do next in his career.
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He had been a part of the famous Hale End academy for 10 years, growing up alongside rising stars like Reiss Nelson and Emile Smith Rowe.
But opportunities were rare and Tella was forced to make a name for himself elsewhere. Speaking to in 2022, Tella said: “I couldn’t believe it, Arsenal was all I knew from the age of 6 when I got scouted.
"For me it was a bit of an embarrassment because I didn’t know how I was going to tell all my friends and family that I was leaving Arsenal.
"It was tough because I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Maybe stay at Arsenal, try force their hand and make another decision, or if I was to go out on trials.
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"I spoke to my family, I spoke to my agent they said its best to go trials to see what I can do and get out of my comfort zone.
"I had trials at Reading, Norwich then ultimately Southampton and it's good now, I’m really enjoying it.”
Joining one esteemed academy from another showed the true talent that Tella had, with Southampton's record for producing stars well documented with players such as Adam Lallana, Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Gareth Bale all examples.
But the Premier League is a tough place for a young player at the best of times and, before Southampton were relegated in 2023, he joined Burnley on loan, who were in the Championship.
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Finally, after 32 appearances across two seasons at St. Mary's in the top tier, Tella came alive - leading the Clarets to the Championship title.
His 17 goals in 39 Championship matches saw Vincent Kompany's men storm to victory success as their top goalscorer and help Burnley claim 101 points.
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But there was a bigger prize at the end of the rainbow for Tella, who left Southampton on a permanent deal in the summer of 2023 to try something different - life abroad.
Bayer Leverkusen decided to snap up the forward during an ambitious transfer window when they purchased Granit Xhaka from Arsenal.
The two players, who might have passed each other in the corridor at Arsenal in 2016, became Leverkusen's two most expensive signings that summer with Xhaka joining for £21.5m and Tella for £20m.
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Xhaka had been at Arsenal for seven years before his Bundesliga switch, making 297 appearances and winning two FA Cups in 2017 and 2020.
The Switzerland international had a rollercoaster of a ride at the Emirates where he was stripped of the captaincy but fought back to earn the Arsenal fan's love.
Under manager Mikel Arteta, he found a new role venturing further forward and it contributed to his best goalscoring campaign in 2022/23 where he scored nine times in all competitions - more than his previous four seasons combined.
And the Gunners have been told that they miss the midfielder, with stats showing his level of influence in Germany.
But Tella thought he was heading back to Turf Moor. Speaking to , he recalled: “But then the Leverkusen interest came in and I was kind of like ‘I don’t know how that interest came about, but I don’t really want to be scared to leave England’. I told myself ‘I want to do this’.
“I was able to go to Germany. At the start it was quite hard for me because it was a new language and a new culture, so at the start I was asking myself how did I get here? Why am I here? And how much am I going to play? They were the three main factors in my head.
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“But speaking to the players and the manager about how I’ll fit into the team and how we’ll play, once I understood what he wanted to do I adapted and adjusted to living abroad.”
Alex Grimaldo, Victor Boniface and Jonas Hofmann also made the move to Leverkusen where they would enjoy an historic season, winning the Bundesliga for the first time ever and doing so unbeaten as well.
Harry Kane had also left the Premier League for Germany, joining Bayern Munich from Tottenham and it was heavily expected that he would end his trophy hoodoo by winning the league with the Bavarian giants.
But Leverkusen pulled off the impossible, ending Bayern's dominance which saw them win the Meisterschale every year since 2012.
In fact, Kane ended up going trophyless again as Munich crashed out of the DFB-Pokal Cup in the early rounds to a third-tier side as well as losing to Real Madrid in the Champions League semi-final.
Xhaka was a crucial part of Xabi Alonso's well-oiled machine and only Grimaldo (51) played more matches than the midfielder (50).
Tella bunch of lads
Tella told Arsenal.com about his memories of playing with one of the best young players around...
"Even when I speak to my friends, family and people in football now, I always say that the team I was in at Arsenal was one of the most talented age groups around.
"So many players have come through and made careers for themselves at all kinds of different levels, and so I think we’ve all done really well for ourselves, but it doesn’t surprise me one bit. We were a really talented group working under some really good coaches. I’m still so thankful to have spent my youth career at Arsenal.
“I’m still in touch with a fair few of the lads and when I come back I’m looking forward to catching up with Eddie and Reiss. I’ve always looked out for how they’re doing, whether they’ve played and whether they’ve scored at the weekend.”
It was his stunning goal that saw Bayer win the DFB-Pokal Cup - completing a miraculous double - by beating second-tier outfit Kaiserslautern in the final.
As for Tella, the 25-year-old made 39 appearances in all where he scored six times, also making his debut for Nigeria last season.
What the future holds for the flying forward remains to be seen but as a Bundesliga champion, he will never be embarrassed again.
Both will be given good receptions when the Bundesliga champions visit the Emirates in a pre-season game on 7 August.
"It definitely feels like a homecoming for me,” he told the Arsenal . “I'm still an Arsenal fan and I always look out for Arsenal's results. The club means a lot to me.
“Obviously, I had a few experiences here when I was at Southampton playing against Arsenal, but having an opportunity to come back here again is a really big thing for me. It's a real full circle moment. I grew up here and I used to watch all the games dreaming that one day I'll be able to play here. It obviously didn't work out for me at Arsenal, which hurt at the time, but every cloud has a silver lining and I’m so grateful for what Arsenal gave me as a kid.”
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Tella may have been embarrassed at first, but he's learned to not let things you deem to be negative shape you as he returns 'home' with a title winners medal around his neck.
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