When I was given a phone number to call former Manchester United star Juan Mata in his native Spain, I confess many years of jaundiced experience rather got the better of me and I imagined an annoying PR would answer the phone, tell me what I could and couldn't ask and, once the interview had started, keep interrupting to make sure I was on message.
Please forgive me, Juan, I should have known better.
For starters, he answered the call himself and during our chat he was charming, intelligent and open, talking about his continuing love affair with this city a year after he left Manchester United and his latest project: a new collaboration combining his passions for football and art which launches today (June 29) at the Manchester International Festival.
And, more importantly, there was no PR in sight.
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You see, Mata isn't your typical millionaire footballer. There have been no lurid headlines about his private life. He doesn't have a clothing line. He wasn't a regular in the celeb haunts of Manchester and Cheshire during his eight seasons at Old Trafford. You were more likely to find him at The Whitworth art gallery checking out the latest exhibition. More on that later.
Things weren't always rosy for him during the post-Fergie slump. The little magician could play though. United fans will always remember the scissor kick goal he scored against Liverpool at Anfield in 2015.
Anyway, to my great surprise Juan Mata picks up the phone, his unmistakeable Spanish tones crackle into life, and we talk about his latest venture. He is collaborating on a two-year arts project, the first instalment of which is unveiled today (Thursday) at the start of Manchester International Festival (MIF).
The seeds of the collaboration were first sown when Juan met Berlin-based artist Hans Ulrich Obrist at the aforementioned Whitworth in Manchester, which it turns out is one of Mata's favourite places.
The pair are now co-curating a series called The Trequartista, which literally means 'three quarters' in Italian but which in Italy has come to refer to the footballing artists who inspired the greatest teams. Mata has helped to find eleven such players, each one to work with an artist to present a series of works over the next two years, starting and ending at MIF.
The project kicks off at this year's festival with a world premiere of This entry, a performance art piece by Tino Sehgal, made with the involvement of Mata and presented at the National Football Museum and The Whitworth.
Juan explains.
"I have been following creative people, trying to disconnect from football in other sectors, trying to feed my curiosity," says Juan. "When we met we had a nice conversation. He spoke about art. I spoke about football and he came up with the idea of trying to connect these two worlds that haven't been in touch very closely, historically.
"I spoke about the way I understand football and the way I used to follow it and love it when I was young, and how it has evolved."
The result is a two-year project titled 'The Trequartista - Art and Football United' in which 11 as-yet unnamed footballers are 'paired' with artists to interpret the theme for themselves. Juan won't say, yet, who they are but he reveals that all have one thing in common.
He said: "As far as I understand football, when I was falling in love with the game, I was watching players and watching certain types of players who in my view looked and behaved and performed like artists on the pitch. That's why it all started for me."
In Italy such players were called trequartista. Here they might be called the playmaker or the number 10, the number such players tended to be given.
"We are talking about those types of players, female and male, who are really creative on the pitch and have real talent and sometimes they break the game, not with tactics, with nothing but their own improvisation," he says.
He reels off a list of such players, although he stresses these aren't necessarily among the collaborators: Zinedine Zidane, Dennis Bergkamp, Roberto Baggio. He's far too modest to mention himself. But Mata the footballer had that bit of magic too on the pitch.
"They were like artists on the pitch and they inspired me to try to play football and play this type of football," he says.
When I ask what he hopes to achieve with this collaboration he is typically modest.
"I'm not hoping to achieve anything else than learn about other people, learn from different sectors and learn from creative people and how people understand their relation between these two worlds of football and art. My only ambition is to enjoy the process and to learn and to feed my curiosity," he says.
He admits he doesn't paint or do any kind of art himself. "I just like to entertain myself and to try to learn from other people. I admire them," he says.
I ask him about how he indulged in his passion for art during his time in Manchester.
"I primarily went to the Manchester Art Gallery and The Whitworth art gallery. To be honest, the Whitworth was one of my favourite buildings in Manchester. Not only because of the exhibitions but because of the way it feels, the park area and the restaurants. It's a very calming space and it's my favourite. And of course the Manchester Art Gallery is very historic but The Whitworth was my favourite."
He says he only managed to go 'from time to time' and 'sporadically'. I venture he was rather an uncharacteristic footballer, with his interest in art, and I ask if he ever persuaded any of his fellow players to join him. When he did go, he wasn't joined by any of his United colleagues, he says.
"I never went with any of my team mates, but I'm sure I could have. I just never had that conversation or never invited any of them."
For a brief moment I imagine him asking Jessie Lingard to join him on a trip to the art gallery.
Apart from a clear and enduring love of the city of Manchester, the Mata family (Juan's father) still has an apartment here and until 2020 had Tapeo and Wine restaurant on Deansgate.
"I spent eight years there. Manchester was my home and I have a lot of people I know (there) and I'm sure they are happy when I go back and I look forward to going back to visit many friends. It's a great city," says Juan.
When it's written down in a press release, it's difficult to imagine the piece created by Tino Sehgal, which is described as a 'playful choreographic exchange between a footballer, violinist, cyclist and singing dancer'.
"You have to see it to understand it," concedes Juan.
Our chat nears an end and we're getting to the bit that an intelligent man like Juan Mata probably knows is as inevitable as a goal in Fergie time. The football question. What does he think of the transformation, albeit a relatively modest one, under Erik ten Hag?
He humours me: "Everything is good that's happening at Manchester. I really want the best for the club. I was very happy when they won a trophy this season and performed well in many games.... I feel very happy. I feel I have a lot of friends there and they have been a big part of my professional career has been there. When they are happy, I'm happy. I'm hopeful for the next season that it will be even better. That will make me very happy."
We say our goodbyes and our rather nice chat comes to an end, and I make a mental note to myself that true gentlemen like Juan Mata really don't need any PR.
