20 years at the club!

It’s been now 20 years since the start of the career of one of the greatest midfielders in the history of football – Andres Iniesta. The Spaniard began his youth career on 6th October 1996, appearing on the pitch just 20 days after joining Barcelona’s academy “La Masia”. The midfielder has spent his entire career at Barcelona. Moreover, he (alongside with Lionel Messi) is the player to win the most trophies with the club (29 so far). Iniesta is one of Barcelona’s legends and he still has what to show on the pitch.

To continue with, the player made his debut for the senior team of Barcelona on 29th October 2002 in a Champions League match against Club Brugge in Belgium. His first goal for the club came against Levante in a Copa Del Rey match, just 3 minutes after he appeared on the pitch. Another memorable moment for the midfielder is his first Champions League trophy in 2006, when he appeared on the pitch in the final game at the halftime. He was the key reason for Barcelona to turn things around against Arsenal, setting up the equalizing goal.

But, Andres Iniesta is also very successful at international level. The first trophy he lifted with the Spanish national shirt was the UEFA European U17 Championship in 2001, then a year later, he was a part of the team, which won the Euro U19 Championship. Iniesta played for Spain U21 until 2006, when he made his first appearance for Spain. He was surprisingly included in Spain’s squad for the World Cup 2006. However, he only took part in one match – against Saudi Arabia (1-0 victory).

Then, Iniesta was a crucial part of Spain’s biggest successes at international stage. He lifted the European Championship twice (2008 and 2012) and the World Cup in 2010. Andres Iniesta scored the most important goal of his career in the final of the WC against Holland in the 116th minute, bringing the trophy to La Furia Roja.