01/04/2026
'He'll retire us both' 😲
How Guardiola predicted his and Xavi's future after seeing 15-year-old Iniesta 🥹
The first time Pep Guardiola met Andres Iniesta was during the Nike Cup, a youth tournament he and Xavi — both first-team members at that time — attended back in 1999, Goal report. Impressed with the 15-year-old Iniesta, Guardiola told Xavi: "You will retire me, but this kid will retire us both."
Guardiola handing the Nike Cup to captain Iniesta on first photo 🏆
Being the genius he is, Pep turned out to be, of course, right. Iniesta was promoted to Barcelona's first team in 2002 when Guardiola had already left for Brescia.
Later on, the Catalan returned as a coach, working at Camp Nou between 2008 and 2012. However, Iniesta hasn't always been a guaranteed starter. It was under Guardiola that the legendary Xavi-Iniesta duo was established.
In total, Xavi and Andres played beside each other for 13 seasons, with the former leaving Barca in 2015 to join Al Sadd. As for Iniesta, he stayed at Camp Nou for two more seasons and joined Vissel Kobe in 2017, having played for 15 seasons as a Blaugrana.
Iniesta has won 32 trophies with Barca, including four Champions League titles. In total, Andres has scored 57 goals and recorded 139 assists in 674 matches for the Catalans.
