Iniesta, a cartoon and infinite player linked to symbolic goals

Andrés Iniesta confirmed this Tuesday his farewell to football, a sport in which he has left his mark as surely one of the best midfielders who understood the game, respected by rivals and fans, and who also scored symbolic and key goals for both the club of his life, FC Barcelona, ​​as with the Spanish team.

The ‘wizard of Fuentealbilla’ leaves the playing fields after a career full of successes and with a final stretch away from the spotlight and from national football where he was one of the great protagonists of the 21st century, with experiences in Japan and the Arab Emirates United, although their impact was much earlier until it became infinite, as captured by the graffiti artist ‘TVBoy’ by turning his historic number ‘8’.

And in 1996, in the popular Brunete tournament (Madrid) that brought together the best youth quarries, a small boy from Albacete surprised everyone with his quality, which did not go unnoticed by the FC Barcelona scouts, who took him to La Masia, where he arrived crying for having to leave his homeland, not yet knowing that he would become a legend and a cartoon footballer, capable of breaking out of the ‘cages’ that his rivals put in place to stop him and that caused comparisons with the famous Oliver Atom from ‘Champions’.

The man from La Mancha was surely deserving of more individual awards than he achieved, especially that 2010 Ballon d’Or that could have been his or Xavi Hernández’s, and went to his friend and FC Barcelona teammate Leo Messi. But he was above individual distinctions because he was always a team player, applauded wherever he went, except, strangely, in a San Mamés that whistled at him for considering that he had done ‘theater’ after a tackle by Fernando Amorebieta that cost him the expulsion to this.

Iniesta also had to battle depression and was one of the first to talk about mental health in the world of football and sports. The sudden death of his friend Dani Jarque in 2009 hurt him greatly and he had to seek the help of a psychologist. The RCD Espanyol footballer had the opportunity to score one of his most memorable goals, the one that gave the Spanish team the historic title of world champion in 2010.

At club level, the shot from outside the area when the clash was dying at Stamford Bridge and which gave him the ticket to the final of the Champions League in 2009 is another of his most remembered goals, mainly by a ‘culer’ fan base that He enjoyed being part of the best Barça in history led by Pep Guardiola and which won 14 of 19 possible titles.

The one from Fuentealbilla left after the 2017-2018 ‘Can Barça campaign with 31 trophies in his suitcase and after 22 years dressed as a Blaugrana. After training personally and especially in football at La Masia, his millimetric and precise passing was one of the lights of a team where he fit perfectly with Xavi Hernández and then with Sergio Busquets.

It was difficult for him to establish himself in the first team, since from his debut in October 2002 under the orders of Louis Vaan Gaal, in the ‘Champions’ against Bruges, until the 2004-2005 season he did not manage to be a regular in the starting eleven.

His path advanced until he left behind that shy 12-year-old boy and his gradual changes of number, from the initial ’34’ to ’24’ before reaching the ‘8’ that elevated him, were correlative to the increase in his importance in the squad. from a club in which he played 670 official matches, only surpassed by Xavi’s 767.

CENTENARY AND HISTORIC OF THE BEST SPANISH TEAM

And almost at the same time that he left Barcelona, ​​unable to play in one more Champions League final due to the failure in Rome, he also ended his journey with the Spanish team with bitterness, eliminated in the round of 16 of the World Cup in Russia against the host on penalties.

The man from La Mancha debuted with the ‘Roja’ in May 2006 and at home, at the Carlos Belmonte, a bit ‘late’ to be one of the great talents in the lower categories and after other contemporaries such as Fernando Torres and José Antonio had done so. Kings. But Luis Aragonés, Vicente del Bosque and Julen Lopetegui gave him their complete confidence until he reached 131 international matches.

He only scored 14 goals, but, apart from the famous one on July 11, 2010 in Johannesburg, many were key, like the first one he scored on February 7, 2007 at Old Trafford to give the victory against England (0-1) and start a streak of 35 games without losing, those scored later against Iceland in the qualifying phase of the Euro Cup and which kept the national team alive, or the one scored against Chile in the 2010 World Cup, just after all the alarms had gone off at get hurt in the debut with a loss against Switzerland.

Andrés Iniesta was an undisputed pillar in the historic golden era with the Euro 2008-World Cup 2010-Euro 2012 treble. After that last success, where he was chosen the ‘MVP’ of the tournament and UEFA’s ‘Best Footballer’.