I reached the Champions League final with Arsenal and then changed careers, but Arsene Wenger is still my boss.
Philippe Senderos has recently reunited with Arsene Wenger, 14 years after his departure from Arsenal.
The former Swiss defender signed for the Gunners in 2003. snub interest from his dad's team real Madrid and Bayern Munich after impressing with his first club Servette.
Senderos was just 18 when he made his €3.55m (£3m) move to north London and moved in with a teenage family. Cesc Fabregas since they both could speak Spanish thanks to their Spanish father.
After retiring in 2019, he returned to Servette to serve as sporting director, but accepted a new job at FIFA last year, with Wenger returning as his coach.
Speaking to talkSPORT.com about his new career, Senderos, now 39, said: “My role is called High Performance Specialist.
“I help federations develop long-term planning on talent development. And my boss is Arsene Wenger!
Legendary Arsenal Boss Wenger managed the Gunners from 1996 to 2018 and helped bring Senderos to the club.
Arsenal won the league three times under the Frenchman and seven FA Cups.
And Senderos says Wenger is as motivated in his work at FIFA as he was at Highbury and the Emirates.
When asked how it feels to have FIFA's Head of Global Football Development as your boss again, he said: “It's good. He has a vision of what he wants and we try to implement it through different programs.
“We travel a lot and help different federations to develop, to close the gap between the leading countries and the less developed ones.
“I am specifically working in the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, India with a colleague of mine, and in Türkiye.”
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After missing Arsenal's Invincible campaign due to injury, Senderos made 117 appearances for the club and scored four goals.
Speaking about missing his first season, he said: “My first year really was a learning curve for me, you know, joining Arsenal, going from the Swiss League to the Premier League, it's a huge quality gap in everything, really.
“It's a different world, you know, so in a way it wasn't that bad getting injured at the beginning, so I have a little bit of time to calm down, learn about the culture, learn about the way things work and everything.
“And then little by little I try to find myself and get better and hopefully have a chance.”
An opportunity came when Sol Campbell suffered a knee injury at the start of the 2004/05 season.
Senderos won the FA Cup with the Gunners that campaign at the age of 20, and Wenger's team defeated their enemies. manchester united 5-4 on penalties.
He was then part of the famous Arsenal team in the 2005/06 Champions League that reached the final. He was on the bench when Arsenal lost 2-1 to Barcelona.
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Arsenal kept a record of 10 clean sheets on their way to the final, and Senderos helped beat Real Madrid, Juventus and Villarreal and earned a call-up to Switzerland for the World Cup in Germany.
The former Swiss international was loaned out to AC Milan and Everton during the latter stages of his time at Arsenal.
He left for Fulham on a free transfer in 2010. Spells with Valencia, Aston Villa, Grasshoppers, Rangers, Houston Dynamo and Swiss second division side Chiasso followed.
