The former Barcelona, Valencia and Spain midfielder was joined by MK Dons goalkeeper David Martin to give the students a taste of what a career in journalism may be like after graduating.

Brimming with enthusiasm, the students grilled the pair on matters ranging from football to personal life.

Journalism lecturer Jon Boyle, who arranged the press conference, said:

“It was a fantastic experience for them [the students] to be able to interview someone who has played in a World Cup and who was once signed by Lazio for £30million.

“It was great to be able to get David down too – I know him as we both live in Milton Keynes and I used to report regularly on the Dons.

“It was nice when the pair met each other as Mendieta said he was at stadiummk for the Dons’ 4-0 League Cup win over Manchester United and he congratulated David on a fine performance.”

The press conference was followed by an interview with Radio LaB, in keeping with Mendieta’s broadcast work for Sky Sports.

A player who became renowned for adopting English customs during his time with Middlesbrough, Mendieta’s connection with the University is as unexpected as his penchant for fish and chips.

“One of the students tipped me off that Gaizka’s wife works at the University as they live locally, so from then on I had to try and get him in for a press conference,” said Jon.

“He’s a great guy and he interacted with the students really well.”

With first-hand knowledge of international football – he was capped 40 times for Spain – Mendieta said England can follow in the footsteps of his former national team and World Cup winners Germany.

“The FA [Football Association] has to realise it has to change a lot of things, like Germany did, like Spain did,” said Mendieta, who was the sixth most expensive player in the world at the height of his career.

“It’s not about long ball, crosses and headers. Nowadays everyone is technically a lot better than a lot of the English players and I think that comes from the grassroots.

“It took 10 years for Germany to win the World Cup again, but I will give a bit more to England, but hopefully we’ll see that.”

• Written in conjunction with student and CitiBlog editor Liam Andrews.