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Sam Marsden, Barcelona correspondent
Andrés Iniesta, one of the greatest midfielders ever to play the game, announced his retirement from football on Tuesday after making more than 1,000 appearances and winning dozens of trophies. Iniesta, who turned 40 in May, left his mark on some of the biggest games in the world while playing for Barcelona and Spain. He scored winning goals, had moments and finals named after him, and even sparked a baby boom in Catalonia.
Luis Enrique dubbed him Harry Potter, Xavi Hernández reckons he is Spain’s greatest-ever player, David Silva once claimed he was the game’s No. 1 ahead of Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, and Pep Guardiola said he helped provide him with a better understanding of football.
If that doesn’t give you an idea of how good Iniesta was, take a look at his trophy cabinet, which includes a FIFA World Cup, two UEFA European Championships and four UEFA Champions League titles among his 38 trophies for club and country.
The creative midfielder — a genius on the ball, either gliding forward or playing killer passes — spent the final years of his career in Japan with Vissel Kobe and the United Arab Emirates with Emirates Club. He had an option to extend his stay with the latter, but instead has decided to hang up his boots.
After a week of teasing the announcement, he chose the eighth day of October to make it official, a nod to the No. 8 shirt he wore for the majority of his club career. With that in mind, here are eight of Iniesta’s most defining moments.
1. MVP in Brunete Championship (1996)
There was never any doubt that Iniesta would make it as a professional. He stood out in every age category and youth tournament he played in. Two tournaments famously marked his early career, though. At the 1996 Brunete Championship — a renowned youth competition in Spain at the time — he won the MVP award as a 12-year-old for Albacete. As a result, he joined Barcelona later that year. Three years later, now 15, Iniesta starred in Barça colours at the Nike Cup, played at Camp Nou. Guardiola watched the finals and he told teammate Xavi, who had just broken into the Blaugrana first team: “You will retire me, but this kid will retire us both.”
2. Iniestazo against Chelsea (2009)
#OnThisDay
🔟 years since this moment … 😍
💭 How did you experience the Iniestazo?
🎩 @andresiniesta8 pic.twitter.com/IfzXXB3Qf9— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) May 6, 2019
One of the most famous nights in Barcelona’s modern history was sealed with an Iniesta goal against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. With 93 minutes on the clock in the second leg of their semifinal and Barça heading out of the Champions League, he collected a Messi pass and fired past Petr Čech from the edge of the box. The strike took Barça into the final, where they beat Manchester United, and helped launch a period of incredible success under Guardiola’s management. It also led to a baby boom in Catalonia, with births up over 16% nine months after that night in London. To commemorate the game — forever remembered as the “Iniestazo” — in 2020 Iniesta spoke to some of the now teenagers conceived on that remarkable evening.
3. World Cup glory goal for Spain (2010)
Andres Iniesta’s historic goal and a first #FIFAWorldCup for 🇪🇸
👀 Like Argentina at #Qatar2022, Spain had lost their first game in 2010. pic.twitter.com/389b9HavaV
— FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 18, 2022
There is no bigger match than the World Cup final and Iniesta delivered when it mattered in the 2010 showpiece in South Africa. With Spain and Netherlands deadlocked deep into extra time and with penalties looming, he kept his cool in the 116th minute to score the goal that earned La Roja’s men their first (and, to date, only) World Cup trophy. The celebration said a lot about Iniesta as well. He took advantage of the biggest moment in his career to pay homage to his friend and a player for Barça’s rivals Espanyol, who had died from a heart attack a year earlier, by revealing a T-shirt that read: “Dani Jarque, always with us.”
4. Image vs. Italy in Euros final captures his brilliance
Iniesta produced the biggest goal at the 2010 World Cup, but the 2012 European Championship was the tournament when he was truly untouchable. He was the best player in a Spain team that made it three major tournament wins in a row. He was named the MVP of the finals after a 4-0 final win over Italy. There was one picture from that summer that stood out above all overs, though, and visualised perfectly how many players teams were committing to try to stop him. In the photograph, Iniesta is surrounded by five Italy players: Juventus duo Giorgio Chiellini and Leonardo Bonucci, plus Claudio Marchisio, Christian Maggio and Thiago Motta.
5. Glorious assist for Neymar against PSG (2015)
Iniesta’s career can be summed up in numbers, but they never told the full story. The beauty always lay in the images. Like the image of him receiving the ball 20 yards inside his own half with his back to goal against Paris Saint-Germain in the 2015 Champions League quarterfinal. Effortlessly breezing past four opponents, he cruised into the final third and set up Neymar with a wonderful pass for the Brazilian to round the goalkeeper and score. Under Luis Enrique, Barça went on to win the Treble that year. Xavi’s role diminished, but Iniesta was still the side’s heartbeat.
6. Ovation from rival fans at the Santiago Bernabéu (2015)
A Spain hero, non-confrontational and a thoroughbred of a player, Iniesta is idolised in his homeland. There aren’t many grounds in Spanish football where he has not been given an ovation — and that includes Real Madrid‘s Estadio Santiago Bernabéu during El Clásico. Madrid fans took to their feet as Iniesta left the pitch in 2015 after he had set up one goal and scored another in Barça’s 4-0 win at the home of their biggest rivals. Iniesta’s brilliance, and the sentiment towards him in Spain, transcends rivalries.
7. The Iniesta final (2018)
The scriptwriters came up with the goods for the 2018 Copa del Rey final. Iniesta, approaching his 34th birthday, had already announced he would leave Barça at the end of the season. He did so feeling that his time at the top level was coming to an end, but his performance against Sevilla suggested otherwise. As captain, he was the best player on the pitch in a 5-0 win. He ran the game like a 20-something again and crowned his performance with a brilliant goal, rounding the goalkeeper and rolling the ball home. He left the pitch to the umpteenth ovation of his career, with tears in his eyes and the curtains coming down on an incredible 22 years at Barça with another trophy.
8. La Croqueta
✨ Las mejores CROQUETAS sobre el terreno de juego las hacía @andresiniesta8.
🤤 Spoiler: este vídeo es una DELICIA. #DiaInternacionaldelaCroqueta pic.twitter.com/ZsV2w1aKyl
— LALIGA (@LaLiga) January 16, 2021
This is not a single moment like the others on this list, but this piece of skill was magical to watch every time he pulled it off. Iniesta did not invent “La Croqueta” but he did help return the move to prominence. It is a skill that characterises his brilliance and his ability to manoeuvre out of tight spots. It involves shifting the ball with speed from one foot to the other and using the second foot to power away from your defender. It was magic every time Iniesta pulled it off — even if defenders knew it was coming. “There is always a moment when you think you’re going to catch him, when you think you’re going to get the ball off him,” former teammate Messi said. “But you can’t.”