It’s now richly embedded in the Barcelona folklore that when Andres Iniesta first arrived at the doors of La Masia – the club’s talent churning factory – one of the local residents famously blurted out, “He doesn’t look like a footballer.” The scrawny midfielder didn’t just lack the physique for the most demanding role on a football pitch, but also came across as an awkward teenager, who couldn’t speak up for himself. Almost three decades to the day, at the age of 40, the Spaniard has officially signed off from the sport with one of the most begrudgingly good resumes.
Social media could barely believe it: he was still playing at 40? To many, he had already brought the curtains down in 2018, in a poignant farewell at the Nou Camp. Fresh off his last appearance in a Barcelona shirt, sitting barefoot in the middle of Europe’s biggest stadium – all empty, lights out – the iconic picture had a sense of finality about it. Wasn’t it a perfect night to call it a day?
Luis Enrique, who played with and coached Iniesta at Barca, reasons as to why he extended his career by another six years. “It reflects what we felt on the streets. When your mother called you after dark, when you can no longer see the ball. He’s 40 years old and still unsure, should I keep playing or not,” Enrique says in the video tribute of the man he called Harry Potter.
Numbers, for all their influence on the sport, don’t tell the half of this tale. Here is a footballer, who won it all – World Cup, Euros, Champions League, you name it – but will be remembered more for the way in which he did.
The artist
Perhaps, no other singular piece of text is as revelatory about the weight Iniesta held on the pitch than what Lionel Messi wrote of him in the former’s autobiography, “On the pitch, I like him to be near me, especially when the game takes a turn for the worse, when things are difficult. That’s when I say: ‘Come closer, I want you by my side’.”
At his peak, Iniesta was the man both Spain and Barcelona looked up to conjure something out of nothing. Take two of his most impactful contributions with incredibly high stakes – 2010 FIFA World Cup final and the 2012 Euros final. Two very different kinds of finals.
Iniesta was the Player of the Match in the 2010 World Cup final and the 2012 Euro final. (REUTERS)
The final against Netherlands in 2010 is widely regarded as one of the worst from an aesthetic point of view. A total of 46 fouls and a record 14 fouls marred the big stage. The Dutch had successfully disabled the Spanish passing network for 90 minutes, but somehow, Iniesta found a way to get the Tiki-Taka DNA flowing in the Extra Time. It was a near flawless display, especially when viewed in the context of the game’s nature. “I seemed to get an incredible amount of touches, I felt I could win every one-on-one, like there was another level,” he’d tell The Guardian.
Even before Cesc Fabregas found him unmarked inside the box for a half-volley, Iniesta had freed him one-on-one with the keeper with a perfectly weighted through-ball. Even before he scored the winner, Iniesta was central to setting it up. Rewatch the 115th minute of the final: just before Jesus Navas loses the ball, Iniesta has scanned the area behind him and knows that Fabregas is going for an overlap from the right. The ball doesn’t come perfectly at him, so he extends his right foot to lift it off the surface and backheel it mid-air. Spatial awareness is one thing. Ball control, another. But to have the pair to execute that move, at that point, in a World Cup final? It screamed clutch.
Then there was the final against Italy two years later, the magnum opus of Spain’s golden era. Vicente Del Bosque’s playing XI comprised one goalkeeper, four defenders, and six midfielders. No striker, no wingers, but six pure possession obsessives, who relentlessly cut through the Italian lines like a cake. An otherwise decent defensive unit was rendered indecisive as Spanish midfielders confused them with interchanging positions and overloading triangles. Nothing exemplified this better than the opening goal. Veering in from the left, Iniesta struts around as the centre-forward option for a second, before quickly returning in-field as central midfielder, and cutting a through ball to carve out the opening. The positional switch paid homage to his all-round ability to play almost anywhere in creative/attacking outlets – central, attacking, wide in the midfield, or even as a winger.
Versatile
It wasn’t just where he played that flexed his versatility, but also the range of avenues he had that made Iniesta a complete package. Chance creation was as crucial to him as seizing them. His childhood hero and former manager Pep Guardiola has gone on record to state how hard Iniesta was on himself for not being able to score more goals. “He always moans that he doesn’t score enough, as if with everything else he does, he has to get goals too.” But when he did find himself in a position, Iniesta laced his boots like a seasoned striker. Be it an outside-of-the-foot volley to clinch a Champions League thriller, scoring from the weaker foot in a Clasico, or pouncing to a half-volley to seal the biggest win in Spain’s history.
It wasn’t just where he played that flexed his versatility, but also the range of avenues he had that made Iniesta a complete package. (Reuters)
An aspect of his game that is less talked about is that he could also dribble the ball as well as anyone else. Messi provides us with perspective.
“Andres and I are similar in that we both use our bodies a lot, to avoid opponents. But he has something that always amazes me. There’s always a moment when you think you’re going to catch him, when you think you’re going to get the ball off him, but you can’t. He’s not especially quick, but he has that ability to always get away from you, which comes from his technique.”
Holding the ball fraction of a second longer did the trick for Iniesta. It was also why he could master La Croqueta – shifting the ball from one foot to another to escape the defenders in tight spaces. He’d do it at the edge of the goal line, and somehow always be able to keep the ball in play. That physique of his, which had made one wonder if he’d ever make it at the top level, came in handy with a low centre of gravity. It was part of the magic football’s Harry Potter conjured. And now he’s left the stage.
Social media could barely believe it: Iniesta was still playing at 40? (REUTERS) 
Iniesta was the Player of the Match in the 2010 World Cup final and the 2012 Euro final. (REUTERS)
It wasn’t just where he played that flexed his versatility, but also the range of avenues he had that made Iniesta a complete package. (Reuters)
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