da apostebet： England's Declan Rice has spoken about staying in touch with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta at Euro 2024 and his message after reaching the final.

da betobet： Article continues below

Article continues below

Article continues below

Rice take questions ahead of Euro 2024 finalEngland to face Spain in BerlinArteta has been in touch with Arsenal starWHAT HAPPENED?

Rice was asked at a press conference ahead of Sunday's final if he had heard from Arteta since the semi-final win over the Netherlands set up a showdown with Spain in Berlin.

Advertisement(C)GettyImagesTHE BIGGER PICTURE

Arteta is Spanish and was polished in Barcelona's famed La Masia academy as a teenager, also racking up junior international caps for Spain at various different age groups. But he has a vested interest in his Arsenal players who are representing other countries too. As well as Rice, Bukayo Saka and Aaron Ramsdale are in England's squad this summer.

WHAT DECLAN RICE SAID

"I've spoken to Mikel, he's been great," Rice explained. "We had a phone call the other, we were speaking for about 10 minutes. That was good, it was nice to speak to him – I hadn't spoken to him since the end of the season, so that was really nice. Then, he texted me the other night saying 'Vamos!', when we got to the final. I'm sure he's going to be split, obviously because he's Spanish, but he's got boys in the [Arsenal] squad who are English as well. It's a tough one for him but he did wish me all the best, so I was happy with that."

GettyDID YOU KNOW?

Aside from managing England players at Arsenal, Arteta himself has lived in the country consistently for almost 20 years, having first joined Everton in January 2005. He then went straight from hanging up his boots with Arsenal in 2016 to coaching at Manchester City, returning to north London three years later. Arteta also had two years at Rangers in his early playing career, which means he's actually spent half his life in the UK.