Playing for Barca isn’t just playing a football match: Iniesta

Mumbai, Nov 9 : Spanish football legend Andres Iniesta has opened up about the “massive pressure and constant tension” he faced while playing for LaLiga giants FC Barcelona, a club with which he was associated for close to two decades.
Iniesta played 442 matches for Barcelona before leaving as club captain, passing on the armband to Lionel Messi. He then joined Japanese club Vissel Kobe in May 2018.
“I am at a different stage in life. Leaving Barcelona and coming here. Well, in many ways has given me a lot of freedom. Playing for Barcelona isn’t just playing a football match. It is massive pressure and constant tension,” Iniesta says in biopic ‘Andres Iniesta – The unexpected hero’.
“It’s training perfectly every day, it’s being the best in every match and that’s very stressful and mentally exhausting,” he adds.
The 36-year-old further said that it was because of the constant pressure that he couldn’t enjoy 100 per cent at Barcelona.
“I enjoyed it at Barcelona but there was something here that didn’t let you enjoy at 100 per cent. So, this something here which represented being at Barcelona and the institution it is, and what that means, that doesn’t exist here,” says Iniesta.