After the announcement of Iniesta’s retirement, memories flood back and José Ramón de la Morena recalls a sequence where the young Andrés cried at La Masía while thinking about Real Madrid.
Andrés Iniesta announced that he was hanging up his boots this Tuesday, October 8. At the age of 40, he quit having made his mark on the history of football and having been one of the greatest brains and aesthetes who has ever set foot on a pitch. It is obvious that he is not completely retiring from this sport, which is everything to him, but a page is turning.
Iniesta, a Barcelona legend and Real Madrid fan
Iniesta and Real Madrid, it was first a love story before becoming one of the greatest rivalries in the history of football. A native of Fuentealbilla, 40km north of Albacete, he was first a fan of his local club: Albacete Balompié. While his favorite club moved to the Camp Nou during the 1991-92 season, the Catalans won 7-1. The young Andrés then took a dislike to the Blaugranas and became a fervent supporter of Real Madrid, as he revealed on the Cuatro channel in 2018. This did not, however, prevent him from joining La Masía in 1996, while remaining a madridista in the soul for a few more years.
The famous Spanish journalist José Ramón de la Morena shared an anecdote on this subject on Radio Marca. While the young Iniesta was already in the Barça academy, he had not yet turned the page with Real Madrid.
“One day he came crying because Albacete had fallen to the Second Division and Madrid had lost. At La Masía he had a difficult time during his first years, but he quickly attracted the attention of Guardiola, Xavi and Luis Enrique up to Serra Ferrer who made him take the plunge.”
The rest of his career made him one of the greatest opponents of the Madrilenians, but the feeling that remained was that of immense respect for him, like the ovation he received at the Santiago stadium. Bernabéu in 2015. He is one of those icons for whom you cannot hold any grudges when you love football.
François.
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