Andrés Iniesta

Andrés Iniesta grew up in Fuentealbilla, a village in Albacete province with so few pitches that he mostly played futsal. Tight spaces later became his best territory. He arrived at La Masia a shy boy who said he "cried rivers" the day he left home. "You're going to retire me," Pep Guardiola, then Barcelona's captain, told Xavi. "This lad is going to retire us all." He started as a defensive midfielder and moved forward as his gifts showed. Iniesta was small and not especially quick over distance, but his first steps were sharp and the ball stayed close even at full speed. With a low centre of gravity he changed direction in a blink, so defenders kept lunging at a ball that was no longer there. His trademark was La Croqueta, a quick shuffle from right foot to left. Guardiola praised "his mastery of the relationship between space and time", and the Spanish press called him El Ilusionista. His main job was to make the side play. Alongside Xavi and Sergio Busquets, he helped Barcelona keep the ball, change the rhythm and open space for others. Frank Rijkaard used him as a false winger, a deep midfielder and just off the striker, and found him excellent in every role. Before the 2009 Champions League final, Alex Ferguson called him Barcelona's biggest danger: "The way he finds passes, his movement and ability to create space is incredible." He set up the opener that night in Rome, and Wayne Rooney called him the best player in the world. He was never a prolific scorer, but he earned a reputation as a big-game player, and he could score with powerful strikes from outside the box. At Stamford Bridge in the 2009 semi-final he curled in a stoppage-time equaliser with the outside of his right foot. He settled the 2010 World Cup final against the Netherlands in the 116th minute, then showed a message for his late friend Dani Jarque on his undershirt. No one else has been man of the match in the finals of a World Cup, a European Championship and the Champions League. There were limits. Injuries were a recurring problem, especially in 2009–10, when thigh and calf trouble restricted him to 20 starts in a season shadowed by Jarque's death. Quiet by nature, he still grew into a leader and took the armband after Carles Puyol and Xavi. In 2015 even Real Madrid fans applauded him at the Bernabéu. Vicente del Bosque put it simply: "A complete footballer. He can attack and defend, he creates and scores." With Spain he was player of the tournament at Euro 2012. He left Barcelona in 2018 after 22 years and 33 trophies, won the Emperor's Cup with Vissel Kobe, and retired in October 2024 after a spell at Emirates in the UAE. As of 2026 he coaches Gulf United.