Iniesta, unparalleled.

A guide to arguably the most successful player in the history of football — illustrated with ten of his best moments and performances.

10. Wembley, London, 2011 — Assisting in a European final

Without a great deal of context, this assist to Messi, to put Barcelona 2–1 ahead against Manchester United in the 2011 Champions League final, isn’t all that impressive. One of those where it doesn’t feel right to give the assister too much credit, as he gets the assist without explicitly creating an obvious chance. Simply the last player to touch the ball before the goalscorer used their own skill and initiative to make it happen themselves. But that’s without context — as this fantastically clear fan-shot video demonstrates, watch how often Iniesta distributes the ball, re-receives it, and finds space for his teammates in the opponents third. He was the beating heart of a sustained spell of pressure, and it was only a matter of time before that lead to a goal.

14 years into his senior career, and on his 700th appearance for club and country, Iniesta’s display at the Vicente Calderon last night was a marvel.

With Barcelona uncharacteristically on the ropes in a major final, a man sent off and another two thirds of the tie to go — plus, as it went, extra time too — their captain lead by example, in a performance of extreme composure and personality.

He demanded the ball, never shying away from responsibility. Time and time again he managed to turn out of dead ends, surrounded by Sevilla shirts, find space and dispatch the ball.

For anyone else, you’d say it had to be seen to be believed, but after Man Of The Match shifts in the Champions League, European Championship and World Cup finals, him doing it in the Copa Del Rey felt par for the course.

9. Bernabeu, Madrid, 2015 —One of his finest goals

An absolutely gorgeous goal and one of the best of Iniesta’s career. This was the third, the highlight of a dominant 4–0 victory that gave Barcelona the initiative in the 15/16 Liga season, a title they would eventually go on to win.

Think of some of the greats of the last twenty years —Scholes, Pirlo, Zidane, Kaka, Ronaldo, Ibrahimovic, Cristiano Ronaldo. None of them can compare to Iniesta in terms of a trophy haul. Brazilian Ronaldo and Ibrahimovic have never won a Champions League, Iniesta has starred in four successful finals. Cristiano has won a single league title in the last seven years whilst at Madrid, and in the same period Iniesta has five. In terms of contemporaries, only his Spanish teammates, with two European Championships and a World Cup to his name — match his international trophy haul.

8. Olympiastadion, Berlin, 2015 — A third assist in a European Cup final, and a Man Of The Match Performance.

It took just three minutes to open up Juventus — who had the best defence in Europe that season — and throw their gameplan out of the window. Iniesta was just a cog in a delightful piece of interplay, started by a familiar crossfield ball from Messi to Alba, when the ball made it’s way into Buffon’s net via Neymar, Iniesta and finally Rakitic. Iniesta’s creativity and presence in the middle of the park would earn him UEFA’s Man Of The Match award.

Of course, this success is shared with his teammates, many of which at both club and international level — but such is the longevity of his career his success outstretches them all. For example, with his first Champions League win in 2006, as well as league title that year, and in 2005, were before Busquets and Pique were at Barcelona, and before they featured for Spain, winning the Euros in 2008. Carlos Puyol missed the 2012 Euros through injury, and retired in 2014, missing out on the treble of last season, and the domestic double of this season, while becoming a peripheral figure due to injuries in his last couple of years at the club. He also got a head start on other stalwarts of this Barcelona era, like Lionel Messi and Dani Alves, and they can’t match his international success.

7. Stade de France, Paris, 2006 — A game changing through-ball.

The trophy that kickstarted Barcelona’s dominance on European football for the next decade. The ten men of Arsenal looked for all the world like they were impossible to unlock, resolute in defence, keeping Ronaldinho frustrated and capable of seeing out the game. At least until 75 minutes, when half-time substitute Andres Iniesta played the decisive through-ball, flicked on by fellow substitute Henrik Larsson, which found the feet of Samuel Eto’o.

Iniesta’s name will always be fused with that of Xavi Hernandez, who famously occupied the midfield with him during the most successful periods in Spain and Barcelona’s history. While they share almost exactly the same trophy haul, Iniesta is starting to inch ahead, as he continues to win trophies in Xavi’s absence; missing out on this seasons’s Liga/Copa double, as he left last summer for Qatari club Al Sadd. Although, Xavi had something of a head start and one earlier league title, under Van Gaal, in 1999.

There are certain footnotes that can be added to Xavi’s honours list, such as the fact that he missed the 2006 Champions League final through injury, and didn’t appear in any of the knockout rounds that season. Whilst he was instrumental in the first treble of 2009, he had taken a more backseat role in Barcelona’s 2015 treble, making 19 starts in the league, and falling behind Rakitic in the pecking order for the preferred First XI that featured in the biggest European matches, only appearing in the final in the 78th minute as Barcelona were seeing it out.

6. Vicente Calderon, Madrid, 2016 — Man Of The Match In The Copa Del Rey Final

It’s a cliche of the playmaker role, but it’s never been so true as this performance — it really did look like he could see the game going on around him in slow motion. And that, in as frenetic and full-blooded final as you’re likely to see. A masterclass in captaincy.

That’s not to take anything away from Xavi, who is still very good value for the honours he earned, even as he began to have a less influential role in the first team. But it illustrates how impressive it is that Iniesta’s career, as of 2016, doesn’t have any of these footnotes — he’s one of the most decorated footballers in the history of the game, and has had an active, influential first-team role in each and every one of the honours to his name.

5. Stadio Olimpico, Rome, 2009 — Winning the treble

After getting Barcelona there himself, Iniesta put in a superb performance. As complete evidence of the Xavi-Iniesta axis being otherworldly as you’re likely to see, Iniesta providing Eto’o with the ball for 1–0, Xavi playing it in for a classic Messi header to make it two. Man Utd barely saw the ball.

Of the eight league titles Barcelona have claimed while Iniesta has been at the club, he has played a prominent role in each of them — appearing 37 and 33 times respectively in 04/05 and 05/06, under Frank Rijkaard, starting 74 times across the three consecutive Guardiola Liga wins from 2008–2011, making 31 appearances under the late Tito Vilanova’s title win in 2013, and making 52 appearances across Luis Enrique’s back-to-back title wins.

He hasn’t been a youth product that’s slowly bed in and made a few substitute appearances, or an elder statesmen used sparingly, but a vital cog in eight title wins, in an evolving side over a twelve year period, won by four different managers. A title that predates a dominant Messi. A post-Xavi title. Titles that have gone down to the last day. A title gained by virtue of beating a Real Madrid who recorded their own record points tally.

4. Austria & Switzerland, 2008 — Helping Spain win their first trophy in 44 years

Just as Euro 2012 was Iniesta’s tournament, Euro 2008 belonged to Xavi. But this was the first time that the two players demonstrated the metronomic synchronicity that made them so revered. After finishing 15 points behind Madrid in 07–08, they would go on to win the treble the season after the Euros and a glut of trophies thereafter. Iniesta put in some memorable performances himself, most notably in the semi-final against Russia.

It goes without saying that Andres Iniesta is an all-time great European Cup player — on European trophies to his name, he is only behind the 1950s Madrid generation (Gento, Di Stefano, Marquitos etc) and Maldini & Costacurta of Milan. Ahead of the likes of Cruyff, Beckenbauer, Dalglish, Baresi and Raul. He’s level with some of his FCB colleagues on four titles, but is the only player to feature prominently in all four of the 2006, 2009, 2011 and 2015 Champions League campaigns, and to feature in each final — coming on as a substitute at half-time against Arsenal, and starting the latter three.

He is personally responsible, as much you can be in a team sport, for each of those European Cups to a certain extent. In 2006 he played the decisive through-ball to equalise against Arsenal, his last-second goal at Stamford Bridge in 2009 took them to the final, where he assisted for Eto’o, and again for Messi in 2011, and again for Rakitic in 2015, where he was named the best player on the pitch.

3. Olympiskiy, Kyiv, 2012 — Man of the match, man of of the tournament

An unorthodox, strikerless Spain eased past Italy in Ukraine to be the first side to retain the European Championship. Iniesta didn’t score or assist but his distribution and ball retention was something to behold, in the final and the whole tournament — as good as he’s ever been, and deservedly player of the tournament, which provided us with the defining Andres Iniesta image in the quarter-final against Croatia —

Such performances are a recurring theme of Iniesta’s career. At the biggest stage of all, the World Cup final in 2010, he came up with the only goal of the match to win it for his country; their first and only World Cup title. The most important goal in the history of Spanish football. He’d also scored the decisive second goal against Bielsa’s Chile en route to the final, winning the match 2–1, when it looked like they might have faltered at the group stage.

Two years later, in Ukraine, Iniesta again was named man of the match in a major international final, a 4–0 rout on Italy, to cap off being named player of the tournament. His third major title for Spain in four years, after being an integral part of their first success in 2008.

2. Stamford Bridge, London, 2009 — Taking Barcelona to the Champions League Final, in the 93rd minute.

One of those moments. Aguero against QPR, Beckham against Greece, Solksjaer against Bayern. The kind of last-minute euphoria and adrenaline meaning so much is something you’ll be lucky to see once a season, anywhere in World Football. The context of this game is well-worn — Barcelona had been on the fortunate end of some refereeing decisions and probably shouldn’t have been in a position to win it — but win it they did. An unbelievable goal, in unbelievable circumstances. The defining image of one of the all-time great club sides.

It’s true that he’s featured in a once-in-a-generation set of players at both club and country. He’s spent over a decade alongside the greatest in the history of the game, Lionel Messi, and it’s a freak of circumstance that his career largely synced up with the perfect compliment in midfield, Xavi.

But this piece has been punctuated with his best moments and performances just to illustrate quite how important Iniesta has been as an individual in the honours he’s won. Never been a passenger, lucky to feature in great sides, but rather a driving force in making those sides great. He is one of the names you’re blessed to have alongside you — never the other way around.

1. Soccer City, Johannesburg, 2010 — Scoring to win the World Cup

Four minutes away from penalties, this goal was scored after a long and ill-tempered final where the physicality of The Netherlands had done enough to keep Spain out for almost the entire game. It helped earn him another Man Of The Match title in yet another final, got Spain the first World Cup in their history, and ensured that at the age of just 26 Iniesta had won everything there was to win — though he’s won almost all of them again since.

Honours;

• Primera División x 8
• Copa Del Rey x 3
• Champions League x 4
• World Cup x 1
• European Championship x 2
• (Plus 6 Spanish Super Cups, 3 European Super Cups, 3 Club World Cups…)

As an honours list, there’s an argument it eclipses anyone else in the game’s history. The website “The World Football Historic Centre”, made by writers and researchers around the globe, places Iniesta at Number One — and that was before he added an extra league and domestic cup in recent weeks. That puts him ahead of the likes of Pele, Gerd Muller and Roberto Carlos.

Their weighting system and methodology is a convincing one, placing a paramount importance on World Cups, Continental Championships, then international club competitions and league titles, with domestic cups and super cups lower.

This weighted system of honours — puts Iniesta top of the pile. Made by the WFHC

Not only has Andres Iniesta got the most impressive honours list in the history of the game, but he has been a consistent and vital figure in winning all of them.

He’s still only 32 years old, and out in front — at the same age, Ryan Giggs would go on to to add another five league titles and a European Cup. To consider what he might add by the end of his career is astonishing.

Follow me on Twitter — @NYSTYR

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