Andres Iniesta Celebrates 20 Years At Barcelona

Even when speaking about football Andres Iniesta makes it sounds simple. “Receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer,” is how the Spaniard describes his education at Barcelona’s legendary La Masia training facilities. This is a mantra that he has abided by ever since he made his first team debut for the club on Tuesday 29 October, 2002, at the age of 18 in the Champions League against Bruges.

Of course it has not always just been “receive, pass, offer, receive pass, offer;” there have been the odd shot thrown in there, too. In fact, Iniesta’s most defining moments have come courtesy of a swing of his boot.

He will always be remembered as the player that scored the winning goal in the World Cup Final for Spain over the Netherlands, while his preposterously cool, sumptuous injury time strike, in the 93rd minute no less, against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final of 2009 defied the mere seconds left on the clock, which until his goal were counting down to Barcelona being knocked out of the competition.

Iniesta’s career is dotted with similarly impressive strikes, his goal against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu is another that immediately comes to mind, and you just need to watch this or one of the other myriad of YouTube compilations to appreciate his shooting brilliance.

(Speaking of videos, one that’s a must watch came courtesy of FC Barcelona’s own official website over the weekend. It’s 25 minutes long, features clips of Iniesta in his infancy and tracks all the way to the present, and it’s both a touching, revelatory, and all encompassing look at Iniesta as a player and a man.)

Iniesta’s goals usually arrive after he has driven at the opposition central defenders on the angle from the wing, discombobulating the backline ahead of him. More often than not, though, instead of shooting Iniesta would use the confusion he’s created to provide an assist to one of his advancing or better placed teammates ahead of him.

This weekend Barcelona celebrated the 20th anniversary of a 12-year-old Iniesta and his parents deciding to enrol him at La Masia, and everyone associated with the club should have spent it looking to the heavens to thank their lucky stars he did.

Appreciating Iniesta at Barcelona goes beyond fandom, though. Anyone with even a passing interest in football should be able to appreciate that Iniesta and Barcelona were a match made in heaven, and him arriving at La Masia is likely a pivotal moment in the space time continuum that not even Doctor Who would mess with. Just imagine Andres Iniesta in a Real Madrid. You can’t. It’s immediately wrong.

It has been a month of celebration for Andres Iniesta, who played in his 600th game for Barcelona against Celta Vigo at the start of October and his assist for Ivan Rakitic against Atletico Madrid saw him become the only player to make at least one in each of the last 14 La Liga campaign. 14 seasons on from making his debut he is still the first name down on the team-sheet, and only Xavi, with 767 appearances, is ahead of him,

Because of these landmarks it’s hard not start looking back on his career, even though he is still only 32 and just as potent as ever, if a little more fragile. What immediately comes to mind when you do so is the passing, movement, vision, and awareness that Iniesta has constantly deployed while in the Barcelona midfield. In fact, it’s immediately apparent that summing up Iniesta’s midfield play with just four words is inadequate.

That’s because Iniesta isn’t just one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, but that the world of football has ever seen. 8 La Ligas, 4 UEFA Champions Leagues, 2 European Championships, a World Cup and a combined total of 17 Copa del Reys, UEFA Super Cups, and FIFA Club World Cups goes some way to explaining his achievements.

But it’s in the detail where Iniesta’s talent really comes to the fore. The way that he can dictate matches with quick short passes to build up a tempo, or long, stretching balls to stretch the play, or regular meat and two veg interchanges just to keep things ticking over until an opening presents itself, each of which he never seems to miss. Or how he is always available, always asking, pining for the ball, always seems to know the right person to give it to, is never afraid to go for the difficult pass, which 95% of the time he is able to execute perfectly, too.

Comparing Iniesta to another footballer is just as inadequate as a four-word summary. Because watching Iniesta play is like watching Leonardo Da Vinci paint, only better because you immediately get a sense of the entire picture.

It’s always been so much more than, “Receive, pass, offer, receive, pass, offer.”

[Images via Getty/Aitor Alcalde & Getty/Octavio Passos]