Axel Allag, Media365, published on Tuesday October 8, 2024 at 2:34 p.m.
This Tuesday, Andrés Iniesta confirmed his retirement from the field during an emotional press conference. After 18 seasons in the elite, he is aiming for a future as a coach, while he would like to return to Barça.
For Andrés Iniesta, “being on the pitch is over”. This Tuesday, the legendary former midfielder of Spain and Barça confirmed his retirement during a press conference organized in the America’s Cup lounge in Barcelona and during which he could not contain her tears. “I never thought this day would come, but all these tears these days are tears of emotion, of pride. They are not tears of sadness. They are tears of that boy from Fuentealbilla who dreamed to become a footballer. And I did it, we achieved it with a lot of sacrifice and a lot of effort. And without ever giving up. Essential values in my life. very happy to have obtained the prize, the dream, of being a footballer,” he said, accompanied by his wife and three children and in front of a crowd of well-known faces including those of Joan Laporta and his former teammates Xavi and Gerard Piqué.
“I would like to return to Barça at some point in my life”
If he has hung up his boots, he is not ready to abandon the world of football in which he has won 32 titles including a World Cup and two Euros with Spain but also 9 Ligas and 4 Champions Leagues with FC Barcelona. “This stage ends, but the game continues… I can’t be too far from football, it has been my life and it will continue to be. We are working on different projects. In this next stage I have this motivation to continue training outside of football, but in the same way, I need to learn, to make mistakes, to train, in the project of the clubs that we have, the academies.. Which is a legacy that I want to continue to maintain, I am already starting the coaching course,” underlined Iniesta who, as a coach, imagines himself well in the “Iniesta profile”, therefore with the desire to have. the ball.
He admitted it easily, he “could have played until he was 90”, but it was time to hang up his boots for him, who therefore wants to “have the title” of coach… and return to Barça, without however affirming that it will be on the bench while he valued the work of Hansi Flick. “I would like to return to Barça at some point in my life. I think that people who have been at this club for so many years, in one way or another, have to be there, but with conditions. When I will see that I can do the same things as as a player, but with another function in the club, I will be delighted.”
