With a lump in my throat and holding back tears at a single question that, in reality, is everything: “Andrés, what does football mean to you?”. The great figures of football who have witnessed, and many of them promoters, of the legend that Andrés Iniesta has become, vouch for him. His coaches, Luis Enrique, Pep Guardiola, Serra Ferrer and Louis van Gaal, with whom he debuted, as well as the coach Vicente del Bosque and the FC Barcelona delegate, Carlos Naval, paint a portrait of someone who they know can retire from football, but football will never retire from him.
Luis Enrique It evokes childhood, when the mothers of so many children who are passionate about football would call them at night through the window to stop playing and come up to dinner: “That is Andrés Iniesta, who at 40 years old is still in doubt as to whether he is still does not continue.” Serra Ferrer remembers that “he is one of the few footballers who was a teacher before being a student”, since he had learned everything. His intelligence has been one of his great strengths and the key to becoming number 1 for someone who did not have the most powerful physique, as Van Gaal says. “Always with football in his head,” says the Dutch coach with admiration
© @andresiniesta8Andrés Iniesta was that great talent that Pep Guardiola found in the locker room when he arrived as coach at Barcelona and gave him the shot of energy he needed. “When a player like Andrés tells you that they are on the right path, that people are happy, that it will go well… wow!”, remembers who shortly after those beginnings led the club to its moment of greatest splendor. It was precisely his personality that, together with his unquestionable good work on the field, earned him the affection of his own and rivals. Del Bosque, the coach who vibrated in South Africa when he saw how he scored the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup, does not forget that indelible moment, but neither does he when he left the Espanyol field applauded, despite having beaten them by a landslide. “I believe that Andrés can never leave football,” concludes Carlos Naval, with a perhaps prescient phrase.
“The game continues” reads in the video along with the key date of October 8 when Iniesta is expected to hang up his boots, which is not necessarily synonymous with abandoning football. It will be this Tuesday when we discover what awaits him in this new stage and decipher what is hidden behind the emotion, but also the enigmatic concentration that the footballer maintains during the video. His privileged head seems to continue working at full speed as he holds back tears at this key moment.
© @andresiniesta8After leaving an indelible mark at FC Barcelona, which was the club of his life, Iniesta moved with his wife, Anna Ortizand his children to Japan where he played for Vissel Kobe for five years. There he won the Emperor’s Cup and the Japanese Super Cup and also expanded the family with Romeo and Olympia, who joined Valeria, Paolo, Andrea and Siena. His next destination was the United Arab Emirates, where he joined the Emirates Club last season. At the end of this stage, the World Cup hero decided to stay in Dubai training until he figured out what his next step would be. We are just a few hours away from knowing the details.
