World Cup winning Barcelona player that typified Guardiola era announces retirement

When you think of the Pep Guardiola era at Barcelona, the names that readily spring to mind are those of Lionel Messi, Xavi and Andres Iniesta.

All three, in different ways, typified what will always be remembered as Barca’s golden era.

During the 2008/09 season, Guardiola’s first as manager of Barca’s senior team, they won the treble, before going on to become the first team in football history to do the sextuple, winning La Liga, Copa del Rey, Champions League, Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and Club World Cup.

Guardiola protege retires

It was also a time of glory for the Spanish national team as they won the European Championship twice in 2008 and 2012, as well as the World Cup in 2010, the vast majority of the time with a core of Barcelona players.

Time doesn’t stand still of course, and now Iniesta is on the verge of announcing his retirement.

Relevo suggest that there will be an event on October 8th when ‘Don Andres’ will officially bring the curtain down on his professional football career.

Some while ago CaughtOffside ran a list of the top 50 footballers in the world and Iniesta placed fourth. Even now he’d surely be in most fans ‘best ever’ player lists, such is the imprint he’s left on the game.

Whilst Iniesta wound down his career at Vissel Kobe and Emirates, Guardiola would go on to change the face of football in the Bundesliga with Bayern Munich, and now in the Premier League with Man City.

He was even recently rumoured to want to try and sign a player that’s been compared to Iniesta, Barcelona’s Pedri, for City.

It would be a huge surprise if the great and the good of the modern game, including Messrs. Guardiola, Xavi and Messi weren’t some of the first to send congratulatory messages to a player that has been the exemplar in a career peppered with greatness.