Andrés Iniesta
(Andrés Iniesta Luján; Fuentealbilla, Albacete, 1984) Spanish footballer.Formed at La Masia azulgrana and linked from its origins to Futbol Club Barcelona, he has been one of the fundamental pieces of Josep Guardiola's Barça, winner in 14 of the 18 competitions he played during the four years he served as coach (2008-2012).Equally decisive has been his contribution to the recent successes of the Spanish team: he scored in the final against the Netherlands the goal that gave the Red the World Cup in South Africa (2010) and was declared by UEFA the best player of the European Championship.2012, a trophy that Spain raised for the second time in a row, after also winning the 2008 edition.
Andrés Iniesta
Andrés y su Younger sister, Maribel, grew up in a working-class family.His father was a bricklayer and his mother helped his grandfather in the bar he ran in town.Always playing ball, at the age of eight his parents decided to enroll him in the selection tests to enter the lower categories of Albacete Balompié.It was there that, according to himself, he gave his first "more serious blows." In 1996, when he was participating in the Brunete Tournament, he caught the attention of Albert Benaiges, from Futbol Club Barcelona, who must have already seen something in that twelve-year-old boy, as he did not hesitate to sign him and take him to Barcelona.
The beginnings in La Masía, the football training center of the Barça club, were not easy.Accustomed to a rural environment, to sharing every moment with family and friends, Andrés was slow to adapt personally.It was not like that in terms of football, since his progression in this sense was quite rapid: already in the middle of the 2000-2001 season he went from youth to Barça B, and became the brain of the team that at that time Josep Maria Gonzalvo was coaching..Regarding his homelessness and his attachment to his family, things changed when his family decided to move to Sant Feliu de Llobregat, on the outskirts of Barcelona.
Andrés Iniesta officially debuted with the Barça first team in the 2002-2003 season, in a Champions League match, led by the Dutch coach Louis van Gaal.During that season and the following one, the midfielder alternated the matches in the two categories, finally moving to the first team in the 2004-2005 season, with Frank Rijkaard as coach.Although he was not a regular in the starting eleven, the youth squad played almost every game and won his first league.
His consecration, however, would come in the 2005-2006 season.With Xavi Hernández injured, the midfielder became one of the benchmarks for Barça, who won the League, the Champions League and the Spanish Super Cup.Things did not go so well in the following seasons for Barça, who saw the Rijkaard project run out and run out of major titles.At an individual level, however, Iniesta's progression did not stop, and in January 2008 the club and the player reached an agreement to renew his contract until June 30, 2014.His termination clause went from 60 million to 150 million euros.
The 2008-2009 season was historic for the player and for the club.Barcelona had signed a young coach, former club player Pep Guardiola, to lead the first team.President Joan Laporta's decision was surprising and few at the beginning of the season were confident that the team would have good results.Time, however, proved Laporta right, and Barcelona, with Iniesta as a key piece of the team, won the Champions League against Manchester United; The Catalans had reached the final thanks to a goal from Iniesta in the second half of an agonizing overtime against Chelsea, at Stamford Bridge, when no culé had any confidence in victory.The team also won the Copa del Rey against Athletic Club de Bilbao and won the League again.Before the end of the year, Barcelona added three new titles to its record: the Spanish Super Cup, the Spanish Super Cup and the Club World Championship, completing a historic 2009.
Iniesta's contribution was fundamental in the four years that Guardiola was at the head of the team, a golden stage already considered among the best in the club's history.To the six of six possible titles of the 2008-2009 season, a record never reached by any team until then, it was soon necessary to add, in the 2009-2010 season, the most disputed national league championship-with a record of points included-in the history of the competition, and the Spanish Super Cup; In the following, 2010-2011, the Spanish League and the European Champions League, victories that gave the right to contest the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the Club World Cup, all of them trophies that went to the showcases of the azulgrana museum.Guardiola's last season, 2011-2012, brought with it only the Copa del Rey, despite the excellent performance of the team, which ran into an intractable Madrid in the League that broke the points record, and that, like the eternal rival , fell in the semifinals of the Champions League.
Of great relevance has also been the contribution of Andrés Iniesta to another golden age, that of the Spanish national team, with which he has reaped nothing less than two Euro Cups and a World Cup.With the lower categories of the Spanish team, Iniesta was already in 2003 runner-up in the FIFA World Youth Championship in the United Arab Emirates, a tournament in which he was chosen as a member of the ideal team, and, the following year, champion of the Under-European Championship.19.He was summoned for the first time with the absolute on May 15, 2006.
That same year he was selected to play the World Cup in Germany, starting in the third game, against Saudi Arabia.The luck of the Red, however, was cut short shortly after, and Spain fell in the round of 16 against France, in what was to be the last chapter of the so-called "curse of the eighth".Things, in effect, would change at Euro 2008, held in Austria and Switzerland.The coach Luis Aragonés counted on Iniesta to play all the matches.Spain won the final against Germany (1-0) and was proclaimed champion.The midfielder was chosen as a member of the ideal team of the tournament and the best player in the semifinal against Russia.
If his role was decisive in the Eurocup, it was no less so in the Soccer World Cup held in the Republic from South Africa in the summer of 2010.The team, which was endorsed by its European success, began by losing the first game, against Switzerland.Then he rectified and demonstrated the quality of his players: they finished leading the group stage and then passed all the qualifiers.On July 11, 2010, in the final against the Netherlands, the Castilian-La Mancha midfielder scored at the end of extra time (minute 116) after Cesc Fàbregas passed.That goal, which a year after Stamford Bridge's famous goal also came at the most opportune moment, gave the title to Spain for the first time in its history and made Iniesta the greatest idol of La Roja fans.
He still excelled more individually, if possible, at Euro 2012, held in Ukraine and Poland.The national team started on the wrong foot again, drawing 1-1 against the Italian team, but its powerful machinery was getting greasy as the competition progressed until it reached the final, where it rolled with an unusually bulky result (4-0) to, curiously, the same Italy.Without scoring a single goal in the entire championship, Iniesta was designated by UEFA as the best player of the tournament; The federation thus recognized his very high quality and moment of form and the key role that his passes and his organizing skills played for the team.
Shy and restrained, Andrés Iniesta is appreciated beyond the traditional rivalries of the fans.He inextricably combines the international projection of his footballing talent with humility and modesty, and, as an exemplary embodiment of the simplicity of rural Spain, he has put his hometown, Fuentealbilla, on the map.Lover of the terroir and of his long-time friends, he has vineyards there to make his own wines and a house on the street that bears his name.Nor does he know ingratitude: in 2011 he became the main shareholder of Albacete Balompié, the club that supported him in his early days as a footballer, and signed a sponsorship contract for him; the shirts of this club now advertise their wine company, the Bodegas Iniesta.
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