It’s now richly embedded in the Barcelona folklore that when Andres Iniesta first arrived at the doors of La Masia – the club’s talent churning factory – one of the local residents famously blurted out, “He doesn’t look like a footballer.” The scrawny midfielder Andres Iniesta didn’t just lack the physique for the most demanding role on a football pitch, but also came across as an awkward teenager, who couldn’t speak up for himself. Almost three decades to the day, at the age of 40, the Spaniard has officially signed off from the sport with one of the most begrudgingly good resumes.
Social media could barely believe it: he was still playing at 40? To many, he had already brought the curtains down in 2018, in a poignant farewell at the Nou Camp. Fresh off his last appearance in a Barcelona shirt, sitting barefoot in the middle of Europe’s biggest stadium – all empty, lights out – the iconic picture had a sense of finality about it. Wasn’t it a perfect night to call it a day?
Luis Enrique, who played with and coached Iniesta at Barca, reasons as to why he extended his career by another six years. “It reflects what we felt on the streets. When your mother called you after dark, when you can no longer see the ball. He’s 40 years old and still unsure, should I keep playing or not,” Enrique says in the video tribute of the man he called Harry Potter.