“The ball will miss you” Spain’s World Cup hero Iniesta announces retirement
October 8, 2024, 8:31 a.m
Andres Iniesta is one of the most successful football players of our time, the Spaniard becomes world and European champion, and he shapes an era at FC Barcelona. Now a great career ends. Superstar Lionel Messi pays tribute to the midfielder, and FC Bayern also congratulates him on an “extraordinary career”.
The former Spanish world and European champion Andres Iniesta has announced the end of his career. In a more than two-minute video that he published on social media, his former coaches Pep Guardiola, Vicente del Bosque and Louis van Gaal, among others, have their say. They all pay tribute to Iniesta’s achievements, character and talent. The video ends with the words “El juego continua” (the game continues), linked to the date October 8th, 2024.
Messi paid tribute to his long-time teammate with warm words. “One of the teammates with the most magic and one of the ones I enjoyed playing with the most,” the Argentine wrote alongside a shared photo on Instagram. “The ball will miss you, and so will we all. I always wish you the best, you are a phenomenon,” added world champion Messi, who shaped an era together with Iniesta. Among other things, they won the Champions League four times together and became Spanish champions nine times.
In 2018, Iniesta left Barcelona and moved to Vissel Kobe in Japan, where he played with Lukas Podolski, among others. In August 2023 he moved to the United Arab Emirates to Emirates Club, where his contract expired at the end of June. German record champions Bayern Munich, among others, congratulated Iniesta on an “extraordinary football career” and wished the Spaniard “all the best for the future”.
