Courtesy: X
Andres Iniesta, the Spanish and Barcelona legend, is preparing to officially announce his retirement from football in a ceremony on October 8, with the date coinciding with the iconic number eight jersey. There were speculations around Andres Iniesta, who is 40 years of age, potentially reuniting with Lionel Messi and Sergio Busquests, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suarez, his former teammates at Barcelona, but those talks are now put to rest.
Notably, as per the report from Relevo, Spaniard Andres Iniesta chose October 8 of this year as his retirement date specially because it matches the jersey number he wore for majority of his football career. After retiring from the national team in 2018, he is currently playing club football for the Emirates Club, which competes in the first tier of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), scoring five goals, and providing one assist in the last year or so.
Andres Iniesta made 674 appearances for Barcelona in a 16-year tenure
Born on May 11, 1984, in Fuentealbilla, a small village in the Albacete province, Castile–La Mancha, Andres Iniesta was sent by his parents in the youth program of Barcelona at the age of 12, due to their prior connections with one of their youth coaches. After his years in the youth football scene in Barcelona, graduating from La Masia academy, he made his senior debut on October 29, 2002 in a UEFA Champions League game against Club Brugge, and the midfield player didn’t look back since.
In his 674 appearances for Barcelona from 2002 to 2018, Andres Iniesta scored 57 goals and provided 135 assists with his playmaking skills and the ability to drop back in defence whenever needed. He went onto win 32 trophies for the Catalan giants, including nine La Liga titles, four UEFA Champions League trophies, and six Copa del Rey successes apart from multiple UEFA Super Cups and FIFA Club World Cups, while there were many individual accolades as well.
Andres Iniesta was part of Spain's first FIFA World Cup win in 2010
During the height of his club career, Andres Iniesta also earned 131 caps for Spain in a career spanning from 2006 to 2018, scoring 14 goals and providing 30 assists after rising through the youth ranks for the national team. He was a part of the Spanish national football team, who won their first FIFA World Cup title in 2010 in South Africa apart from two UEFA European Championships in 2008 and 2012.
After retiring from international football and leaving Barcelona in 2018, he joined the Japanese club Vissel Kobe, making 134 appearances for them. He scored 26 goals and provided 25 assists for Vissel Kobe, to help them win the J1 League, Japanese Cup, and the Emperor’s Cup once during his five-year tenure before joining Emirates Club in the UAE in the summer of 2023.
