The Illusionist : Don Andrés Iniesta

Cool pics, the Pique and Puyol one is just boss.

Great to see Sami Etoo there.

Congratulations to Iniesta, looked like one hell of a wedding from the pictures.

People lined the streets leading to the wedding in Tamarit, with Barcelona teammate Gerard Pique tweeting "this looks like the Tour de France."

Hehe, looks like an awesome wedding. Congrats to the Don.

More photo's.








Cesc's girl.

Congrats to Don Andres ,Great pictures.Who's that chick with Pedro btw?

Info-graphic: @andresiniesta8 Stats in details (Barca+Spain) ‪#fcblive‬
- 478 official games (327W, 96D, 55L)
- 52 goals
- 86 assists
pic.twitter.com/evwmTBKv

'The Artist' has won Uefa's Best Player In Europe award.

After the disaster of last night and as a result having spent the whole day in office in a frustrated mood, I really needed something to cheer me up.

Since last night wasn't about the UCL or La Liga being decided, for me at least this more than makes up for the frustrations felt in the last twenty hours or so.

It was great to see him alongside Messi and C.Ronaldo on the podium and then surprisingly edge them out and win the award, all this with his wife and some other family members present right there and zealous fans like yours truly present in spirit. If after all the trouble I took of coming home earlier than usual from office and asking for complete privacy for one and a half hours, C.Ronaldo had won the award, it would have been a real dampener. I knew this time it was very tight but it seemed to me that C.Ronaldo had a slightly higher chance than the other two nominees.

Earlier when he had won the best player at Euro 2012 the one thing missing was that it was an award declared after the tournament was over with no presentation ceremony as such. The mesmerizing midfielder has had many glittering moments in his career but he finally now has an individual moment as well.

Awards are hotly debated and are sometimes very close with this one turning out to be a bit too close. The intention here is not to reopen any debate about who deserved the award and who didn't but simply to enjoy this moment as an Iniesta or even a Barcelona fan. It's possible that such a moment may never be repeated. Players of this kind hardly ever win the major individual awards but in this one instance he did.

UEFA Player of the year.



Ronaldo being pissed off.

hete, cool picture.

If I noticed carefully there wasn't even a cursory handshake between our maestros and the Portuguese. It's kind of unfortunate that the rivalry and bitterness has now reached such a level that they can't even be civil with each other. Anyway at least Messi hugged Iniesta warmly and that means much more to me than how the Madrid icon reacted.

Just listen to this.

Of the seven major footballing nations in Europe, the journalist representatives of five ( Italy, Germany, France, England and Netherlands ) chose Iniesta. The two who didn't are Portugal who understandably went for C.Ronaldo and SPAIN for whom the representative was from MARCA and he chose ... All this after Spaniards have lamented often in the past that their country doesn't get best player award winners in spite of ruling the international scene. This very Marca was one of the loudest in abusing the jury of Fifa Ballon D'or 2010 for choosing Messi over Xavi and Iniesta. Funny how things can change when it's your club's player that is involved. For Marca club remains over country it seems and all other beliefs matter only when Real Madrid is not involved.

http://www.uefa.com/uefa/uefa-best-player-award/season=2012/index.html

A nice and detailed biography of Iniesta.

http://www.fcbarcelona.com/football/first-team/staff/players/iniesta/biography

Not sure why the Spanish representative is not from a more respected newspaper rather than a tabloid.

I am not the only one laying into that "Spanish" journalist. Among a few others in Twitter there is also this rather special gentleman who we are a bit too familar with.

Tw Pique: "Congratulations to the journalist who represented Spain and who did NOT vote for ! #welldoneson" [@3gerardpique]

messixaviesta wrote:hete, cool picture.

If I noticed carefully there wasn't even a cursory handshake between our maestros and the Portuguese. It's kind of unfortunate that the rivalry and bitterness has now reached such a level that they can't even be civil with each other. Anyway at least Messi hugged Iniesta warmly and that means much more to me than how the Madrid icon reacted.

rivalry??? don think so, its just one Portugese is classless. sorry not one but two ---- his boss is also classless....

I am so happy (being a big messi fan who wants messi to win everything) that iniesta won. very very well deserving , i do not have little doubt over it. And now that iniesta achieved it , i wish the same for our other maestro Xavi.

neuro, very well said. I too strongly wish for Xavi to win a best player award. Unfortunately he is into his thirties now and that has made it more difficult. That's not to say it is by any means ruled out - an extraordinarily impactful and title winning performance in any one of UCL 2012-13, UCL 2013-14 or WC 2014 could very well be just what is needed.

Iniesta has muscle discomfort and is undergoing tests #fcblive [barcastuff]
Official: Iniesta has a right thigh muscle injury, he'll be out for 10 to 15 days #fcblive

The guy hasn't played one full game in La Liga, and he's already broken.

^ I'm sure the happiest person in barca is CESC atm. Now its his time to redeem himself otherwise thiago or song will take it.



against getafe:

---------alexis------------------------------

---------------------messi----------pedro---

-----cesc-----------------------------------

-------------------------------xavi-----

--------------busquets--------------------

adriano-----puyol-------pique------alves




or later in the match if are desperate:



---villa------------alexis------------pedro---

------------------Messi---------------

---------busquets-----------xavi--------

Adriano------puyol--------pique--------alves

Such a shame that Don is injured already, he didn't even play one full game in the League, just two full games in Supercopa We will be much weaker without him. TBH knowing our medical team I wouldn't be surprised if that injury will keep him out of the team for a month, not 15 days. Let's hope he will be ready for Clasico.

Blame the bleeping international breaks, not our medical staff.

But let's not be negative, he has an elongation, that's not even an injury.

matpol wrote:Such a shame that Don is injured already, he didn't even play one full game in the League, just two full games in Supercopa We will be much weaker without him. TBH knowing our medical team I wouldn't be surprised if that injury will keep him out of the team for a month, not 15 days. Let's hope he will be ready for Clasico.

We have the best medical staff in the world... What are you talking about.

Our players are blessed to have our guys helping them