Andres Iniesta announced his retirement from football earlier today following a 12 years career.
It's time look back on his career.
Iniesta came through the youth system at Barcelona when he started out as a youngster and after a couple of years in the B team, he made his debut for the club in a Champions League game against Club Brugge in October 2002 aged 18.
It wasn't until the 2004-05 season where he featured more regularly in the Barcelona side as he played 37 times in La Liga, starting 12 games as Barcelona won the La Liga title.
He was more of a first team regular the following season, due to an early season injury to teammate Xavi. He began to grow as a player with the games he was getting as Barcelona won the double in La Liga and the Champions League, beating Arsenal in the final in Paris. Following the conclusion of that season, he was called up into the Spain squad for the first time ahead of the 2006 World Cup in Germany. He made his debut in a warm up game against Russia.
The 2006/07 season saw him play in a variety positions such as out wide and as a central midfielder. This season marked his best goal scoring season as he scored 6 times. But Barcelona missed out on the La LIga title on goal difference. During that season, he scored his first goal for Spain in a 1-0 friendly win over England, a long range effort that crept in under the crossbar.
As he continued to grow and develop as a player, his game went onto another level in the 2008/09 season as he played a key role in Barcelona winning the treble in Pep Guardiola's first season in charge. They won the La Liga title by nine points, the Copa Del Rey by beating Athletic Bilbao in the final and the Champions League, where he scored in the semi final against Chelsea to send them to the final, and assisted Samuel Eto'o for the first goal in their 2-0 final win over Man United in Rome.
He won more trophies the following season with Barca in the Club World Cup in Abu Dhabi, beating Estudiantes in the final, and another La Liga title, which Barca won with a record breaking 99 points. But the season itself was a frustrating one for Iniesta as he picked up a number of injuries over the course of the campaign.
In the 2010-11 season, he finished joint second with midfield partner Xavi in the 2010 Ballon D'or standings with fellow Barca teammate Lionel Messi winning the prize for the second year running. On the pitch his game continued to grow as he played another key role in Barca winning another La Liga and Champions League, beating Man United 3-1 in the final at Wembley where he set up Lionel Messi for the second goal.
He won more success with Barca in the years that followed including 4 more La Liga titles, 5 more Copa Del Rey's, another Champions League in 2015, 2 Super Cups and two more World Cup Cups. He left the club in 2018 after making 674 appearances and scoring 57 goals in all competitions.
After leaving Barcelona, he joined Japanese side Vissel Kobe where he spent 6 seasons and won three trophies in the J1 League in 2023, the Emperor's Cup in 2019 and the Japanese Super Cup in 2020. He ended his career at UAE club Emirates.
For Spain, he'll go down as one of their greatest ever players as he played a key part in every success he was involved with including the Euros in 2008 and 2012, the latter of which he was named player of the tournament, and the 2010 World Cup, where he scored in the winning goal in the final win over Holland in South Africa.
In terms of his career as a whole, Iniesta will go down as one of the greatest midfielders of all time because of the way he played the game and the kind of player he was. He could control the flow of a game from midfield with his range of passing and ability to move forward with the ball into dangerous areas. He's had an playing incredible career and will be seen as a legend for both Barcelona and Spain. Especially when you consider the amount of trophies he won and the player he was for both teams.
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