Barcelona hero and club legend, Andres Iniesta, is currently the longest-serving player on Barcelona’s entire roster. The Spanish superstar joined the club as a youngster and is a product of the club’s famed academy, La Masia.
The rest, as they say, is history, as Iniesta broke into the senior team in 2002, making just 9 and 17 appearances respectively across all competitions in his first two seasons with the senior team.
Since then, there has simply been no turning back. Iniesta has since become nothing short of a cult figure and has been hailed widely as one of the best players to have graced the game.
After a period of 16 long seasons with the club that witnessed him lift an astonishing total of 31 trophies, including 8 La Liga titles and 4 UEFA Champions League titles.
Today, Iniesta revealed his intentions to leave the club and move to China once the ongoing season culminates, and as expected, people from all over the world flocked to social media to have their say – some to thank the Spanish wizard for all his contributions, while some took to social media to express their disappointment to see Iniesta go.
As usual, Twitter was the place to be as pundits, players and fans, alike, took to the platform to express their opinions and feelings, while the rest presented themselves to bid farewell to one of the greatest icons this beautiful game has ever seen.
On that note, here is a look at some of the best tweets we found:
Andres Iniesta announces that he will leave FC Barcelona at the end of the season.
16 seasons
♂️ 669 games
⚽ 57 goals
8 LaLiga
6 Copa del Rey
7 Supercopa de España
4 Champions League
3 Super Cup
3 Club World Cup
. #Iniesta #Barca #Barcelona pic.twitter.com/JENBF1PIo5
— NewsWire UG (@NewswireUg) April 27, 2018
Andrés Iniesta: “I have said I will never play against Barça, so I won’t play in Europe.”#UCL #GraciasIniesta pic.twitter.com/RRpHdNXrjd
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 27, 2018
Andrés Iniesta: “For me, it’s been an honour and a privilege to play in so many games with Leo Messi because there is no one quite like him. It’s been magic.”#UCL #GraciasIniesta pic.twitter.com/XZj1H482GM
— UEFA Champions League (@ChampionsLeague) April 27, 2018
@andresiniesta8 A Great Player !!
You taught us , Gave away to Find success , You fought along with us. But one has come to decide yet u decided it happend but u Remains in every Game we play !!
Hope you success Where ever you play #Iniesta
L E G E N D 🙂 pic.twitter.com/uyM02YPGxV
— Messi (@Nithish__10) April 27, 2018
The only player in history to be named Man of the Match in a EUROs final, World Cup final & Champions League final.
One of the best midfielders ever. #Iniesta @andresiniesta8 #legend pic.twitter.com/bfuPvJBFZL
— Nilesh Tiwari (@nileshcityzen) April 27, 2018