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Andres Iniesta’s first night at Barcelona’s renowned La Masia youth academy was one of the worst of his life.
Aged just 12, and having spent his whole upbringing until then surrounded by family in his small village of Fuentealbilla (population 2,400, in the southern Spanish province of Albacete), he was now alone, hundreds of miles from home.
He was fulfilling a dream, but the experience left a mark on him. Iniesta says the “traumatic” change “took its toll” and he believes it may have played a role in the depression he would later suffer at the peak of his career, even if “things returned to normal”.
Now aged 41, the former Barcelona and Spain midfielder retired from football in October last year. He still uses the present tense when he talks about the game, though — perhaps because you never stop being a footballer, or perhaps because he has not yet fully come to terms with not setting foot on the pitch in an official match ever again.
“I think I will feel that nostalgia my whole life,” he says in an exclusive interview with The Athletic. “I do miss it. The thing is, you come to realise that football is not just those 90 minutes (of a game), but that it requires a lot of preparation. In the end, that is what wears you out.”
This autumn marks the first anniversary of Iniesta’s new life — and it seems as if the club of his career, Barcelona, are paying tribute to him with some of their Champions League trips this season.
Earlier this month, they played out a madcap 3-3 draw at Club Brugge’s Jan Breydel Stadium — the ground where, in 2002, Iniesta made his senior debut aged 18.
Today (Tuesday), they visit Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge, where the midfielder scored one of the most important goals of his career, and in Barca’s history, to take them to the 2009 Champions League final. There, a side then managed by Pep Guardiola would complete the treble for the first time.
Iniesta is most associated with Guardiola’s Barcelona and his longtime midfield partners in that team, Xavi and Sergio Busquets. He won everything there is to win at club and international level — including nine La Liga titles, six Copas del Rey and four Champions Leagues with the Catalan club, and the 2010 World Cup, either side of two European Championships, with his country.
Andres Iniesta shares a final moment with the Camp Nou after his final Barcelona appearance in May 2018 (David Ramos/Getty Images)
In 2010, he scored the extra-time goal against the Netherlands to earn Spain football’s most prestigious trophy and completed the Ballon d’Or podium alongside his club team-mates Lionel Messi, the winner, and runner-up Xavi.
Before Barca’s return to Stamford Bridge, The Athletic sat down with Iniesta to analyse his style of play and some of his most memorable goals — even if, for him, it was never just about scoring.
Iniesta cannot help but smile when I mention the croquetas.
His signature dribble, passing the ball from one foot to the other, was given that name for its similar movement to that of a croquette when it rolls in a frying pan or on a plate.
Messi used to do it, as did Michael Laudrup, but it is Iniesta who is perhaps most associated with the move in the modern game. The midfielder had a talent for making the complex look easy. When you saw him on the pitch, there was something hypnotic about his way of playing.
Where did he get it from?
“My idols were Guardiola and Michael Laudrup (a Danish forward who played for Barcelona from 1989 to 1994),” Iniesta says. “Laudrup’s dribble, which he did so wonderfully, inspired me. Then I would try it in training, in a match, and in the end it became part of my game. It was something I felt comfortable with, and I usually did it quite well.”
Before joining Barca as a 12-year-old, Iniesta played as a holding midfielder for Albacete’s youth teams, and he continued in that role at La Masia — a role Guardiola filled for the club’s senior side.
In his first appearances with the Barcelona first team, Iniesta continued in the same position. He had a privileged reading of the pitch, but was physically limited by what the modern game was beginning to demand.
Andres Iniesta grew up idolising his future manager Pep Guardiola (Shaun Botterill/Getty Images)
Watching videos of him on his debut against Brugge, he stands out for having the vision of a veteran but the legs of a youth player aged 14 or 15.
So his position changed, with Barcelona’s head coach at the time Frank Rijkaard moving him out to the left wing.
“What I liked was playing, wherever that was,” Iniesta says. “I’ve always felt most comfortable as an attacking midfielder. But I believe that systems of football have to do with how you understand the game, how you understand the team-mates around you.
“In that sense, the early years were a learning experience, when I was switching positions more often. It taught me a lot in terms of knowing what you have to do, or not do, in a certain position. Then, as time went by, perhaps it was in that attacking midfield position where I remained most stable in the centre, but it all depends on the moment, it depends on the match, it depends on many things.”
That stability came with Guardiola after his promotion to the first team in 2008. He put Iniesta in the centre of the pitch, alongside Xavi and Busquets.
It became one of the best midfields ever — yet there was a belief within the club then that Xavi and Iniesta could not play together as attacking midfielders as the team would be physically unbalanced; a view that now looks ridiculous.
The understanding between Iniesta and Xavi seemed telepathic, perhaps because Xavi also grew up mirroring Guardiola. Can that connection be trained?
“Like when you live with someone, time allows you to get to know them much better, to know their habits, their movements, what they feel comfortable with and what they don’t,” Iniesta says. “It also depends a lot on the intelligence of the other people. Both Xavi and Busi are among the best players there have ever been, so obviously that makes it easier to understand each other.”
How did they make one another better?
“In every aspect,” Iniesta says. “When you make a move and you know that person is going to give you the ball at the right moment, in the perfect place, for example, to enter the area and be able to go one-on-one with the goalkeeper, all those situations make you better.
“Beyond talking about things or not, we were very intelligent people mentally, but also visually. The fact that when you arrive young at the first team, you’re watching how Xavi moves on the pitch, how he positions himself, how he touches the ball, all those things are part of the learning process. It’s almost without you realising it, but you observe it every day. You learn on a daily basis. It’s an overall improvement. Being around the best makes you improve.”
Andres Iniesta says he and Xavi, right, made each other better ‘in every aspect’ (Jamie McDonald/Getty Images)
Together, Xavi and Iniesta were magical. They moved the ball around quickly thanks to triangular passages of play and quick thinking. They worked like magnets attracting each other, as if connected by an invisible thread — partly thanks to their constant scanning during matches.
“Being a midfielder forces you to be aware of everything around you,” Iniesta says. “You’re in the middle, you have to know how to see what’s in front of you, behind you, and to the sides. The midfield is the engine, or the thermometer, of the team.
“I consider myself a very cerebral person. When I’m in places, from the moment I walk in, I know how everything is, I have everything pretty much under control. And in football, it’s the same. I’m constantly scanning everything that’s going on.
“Football is movement. An opponent is in one place one second and, two seconds later, he’s gone. That intuition or knowing what might happen, what’s behind you before you receive the ball, all those things give you those seconds of advantage to make a decision. Having all that under control always goes with personality.”
During those glorious years for the Catalans, until Xavi left for Qatari side Al Sadd in 2015, the team were nicknamed ‘El Barca de los bajitos’ (Barca of the Short Ones). Between Iniesta, Xavi and Messi, their main stars’ average height was 170cm (5ft 7in).
Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Xavi at the 2010 Ballon d’Or ceremony, where they all finished in the top three (Stuart Franklin – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)
The Athletic asks how Iniesta and his team-mates turned that physical disadvantage in their favour.
“The most important thing is balance,” he says. “That team and that national side didn’t just have players who were 1.70m tall and weighed 68kg (150lb; 10st 10lb). There was much more to it than that.
“You have to know what kind of player you are, where your strengths and weaknesses lie. If you’re up against a player who is 1.80m tall and strong in the air, you’ll probably try to avoid a lot of aerial challenges or try to position yourself better or stay further away from him to receive the ball. Football boils down to intelligence about what you have to do and how to do it. The defender will have other tools, another way of seeing it. You have to find a way to do what you do best.
“It was more of an external perception of where football was going. There was a lot of talk about physicality and so on. We opted for a style of play. We wanted to build on our strengths, where we were good, and it worked out well because we trusted that type of play, that type of footballer, and it got results, which is what gives you strength in what you do.”
Iniesta did not score many goals — 57 in his 674 appearances for Barcelona, 13 in 131 Spain games — but some of the ones he did were historic.
“I wasn’t known for long-range shots,” he says. “But my most iconic or memorable goals came from powerful shots. Even though I haven’t scored many goals, I’m happy with the ones I’ve scored.”
15 octubre 2008
Golazo de Iniesta a Bélgica en la victoria de España en Bruselas camino de la Copa del Mundo.
Han pasado 17 años.
📹: tve pic.twitter.com/oAq32nVS3A
— @Memorias_Futbol (@Memorias_Futbol) October 15, 2025
In October 2008, in a World Cup qualifying match away to Belgium, Iniesta scored the equaliser. After a defensive error, the ball reached Cesc Fabregas’ feet. He passed to Iniesta, who ran into the opposition area, nutmegged goalkeeper Stijn Stijnen with a croqueta and scored.
Iniesta smiles as he watches the move again 17 years on.
“For me, it’s one of the most beautiful goals I’ve ever scored,” he says. “It was really beautiful in every way. Because of the play, because of the difficulty in the little space there was. I nutmegged the goalkeeper as he came out. It had everything.”
Six months later, Barcelona faced Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals. The first leg at the Camp Nou ended goalless, and Barca were trailing 1-0 in the 90th minute in London. Iniesta scored in the 93rd minute to take them through, on the since-scrapped away goals rule, to the final. In Barcelona, it became known as ‘el Iniestazo’.
“It (the semi-final) was practically all lost,” Iniesta recalls. “I remember when Dani (Alves) was bringing the ball up the wing. It would have been practically the last chance we had. I remember going up to see what would happen.
“There was no clear idea. Once I was there, I was outside the area in case the cross was cleared and went out. I remember when Leo (Messi) tried to make space to shoot and the Chelsea players came out and left him behind. Then the shot was spectacular — the only place I think it could have gone (into the net). Besides, Petr Cech is a goalkeeper who is practically two metres tall. It was almost impossible for that ball to go in. It was a crazy moment.”
🙌 Hay goles que son ‼️
¡ESTO de @andresiniesta8 #TalDíaComoHoy en 2⃣0⃣0⃣9⃣!#UCL pic.twitter.com/jzYem9asPH
— Liga de Campeones (@LigadeCampeones) May 6, 2024
And then came that World Cup final goal in Johannesburg’s Soccer City stadium the following July, after 116 minutes of deadlock with the Dutch.
“It was different from the Chelsea match,” he says. “We went into extra time, we had chances to score, they went down to 10 men. The goal had to come, but there were only a few minutes left before penalties. I was feeling very strong in that match and I thought, ‘Ugh, we have to do whatever it takes to avoid penalties.’
“I was entering the area when (Fernando) Torres was on the left to make the pass. When Cesc got the ball there, I positioned myself to receive it. He’s very fast, very intelligent, and he passed me the ball. Being a little off-balance, my intention was to cross the ball. It turned out great, didn’t it?”
Minuto 116.@AndresIniesta8 para la historia. 🏆🇪🇸@SEFutbol | #CopaMundialFIFA pic.twitter.com/ZwgpG1LigX
— Copa Mundial FIFA 🏆 (@fifaworldcup_es) April 5, 2025
He celebrated by revealing a white undershirt with a message, written in blue marker-pen, which has gone down in history: “Dani Jarque, siempre con nosotros” — ‘always with us’.
Jarque was Iniesta’s friend, who played in Barcelona for Espanyol and had been a Spain youth international. He died suddenly in August 2009, aged 26, of a heart attack while at a hotel during his club’s pre-season. Iniesta had already been struggling with his mental health and tried to cope with his depression by continuing to play and ensuring fans did not notice.
“I was pretty much at rock bottom,” Iniesta says. “I started to recover once I put myself in the hands of professionals and with a lot of dedication, a lot of hard work, overcoming bad moments, average moments, good moments.
“At first, I found it very difficult to get through a training session. It was very difficult, but I had the mindset to try, even if it was only a little, to go to training. I understood that those minutes, those 10 minutes, were grains of sand that you were putting into the positive side for the days that were to come. Fortunately, with the help of many people, I was able to get through it. Those were very difficult times.”
Three years after moving to Barcelona, in 1999, Iniesta captained their team in a youth tournament final against their counterparts from Argentine side Rosario Central and scored the winning goal. Guardiola handed him the award for best player of the final as well as the competition’s overall trophy.
“In a few years, I’ll be in the stands watching you do everything you’ve done today, but with the first team,” Guardiola whispered in his ear.
“I think I have a shirt signed with that phrase,” Iniesta recalls with emotion. “It’s one of the most special moments I’ve experienced in my career. Imagine that: years later, your idol becomes your coach and what happened, happened.”
Before saying farewell, and being keenly aware he is not someone who likes to talk about himself, I read Iniesta something former Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said in a news conference before that 2009 Champions League final, which Barca went on to win 2-0.
“I’m not obsessed with Messi — Iniesta is the danger,” Ferguson said. “He’s fantastic. He makes the team work. The way he finds passes, his movement and ability to create space is incredible. He’s so important for Barcelona.”
Iniesta smiles.
“I’ve loved playing football,” he replies.
