Not to be outdone by the superstar recruitment drive over in the Saudi Pro League, Barcelona great and World Cup winner Andrés Iniesta is allegedly set for a move to the Adnoc Pro League and Ras Al-Khaimah-based Emirates Club on a one-year deal.
Since leaving Barcelona in 2018, Iniesta—widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of his generation—has played for Japanese side Vissel Kobe, but was rumoured to be looking for one last move to continue playing for as long as possible. The signing was annouced via Emirates Club’s official X account.
It’s rumoured that Iniesta chose Emirates Club over the chance to reunite with former Barca players Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba at Inter Miami in favour of a move to the Middle East.
Here are five things you should know.
Iniesta once loved Real Madrid
When he was a kid, Iniesta’s second favourite team—after his local team Albacete— was Barcelona, largely due to his love for the Danish star Michael Laudrup. That all changed when the Catalans beat Albacete 7-1, with a six-year-old Iniesta furiously switching his allegiance to Real Madrid. Four years later, his dreams looked to be coming true as Madrid came in to sign the talented youngster. However, when his parents saw how close the training academy was to the, well, adult activities of the city, they refused to let him join. At the age of 12 he signed for Barcelona instead.
Iniesta once walked the pilgrims trail
Before winning the World Cup in 2010—Iniesta bagged the winner in the final against the Netherlands—the entire Spanish team sealed promises in an envelope that they would fulfil should they win the trophy. Iniesta’s was to walk the pilgrims route to Santiago de Compostela through the way of St. James—an 800km walk to the town that holds the remains of St. James in Spain.
Iniesta impressed Pep Guardiola in seconds
The current Manchester City was still playing with Barcelona when his brother Pere—who was working with Nike—told Guardiola that he simply must come down to watch the young Spaniard play for Barca’s youth team in the Nike Cup. “He said, ‘Pep, you’ve got to come and see this kid’. I remember getting changed quickly after training and rushing there, dashing to the stadium. And yes, I saw for myself how good he was. I told myself, ‘this kid will make it, he’s going to play for Barcelona for sure.’”
Iniesta was super consistent at Barcelona
In a time of a high number of games, increased pace and intensity and squad rotation, Iniesta was an incredibly consistent presence at Barcelona. In 16 years in the first team, he managed an incredible 674 appearances (and 57 goals). That’s an average of around 42 games per season.
Iniesta played a huge part in football’s Tiki-Taka revolution
While the style of play—which involves short, sharp passing and movement and use of angles—was being implemented at Camp Nou since Johan Cruyff’s tenure at the club in the early ’90s, it really became establish during Guardiola’s time as manager, spearheaded by the likes of Lionel Messi, Iniesta and Xavi in particular, the latter two for both for club and country.