What is difficult he makes look easy with the ball. An incredible talent of an extinct species. If I were playing football today I would like to be like him.
When legends and top coaches Johan Cruyff, Cesar Luis Menotti and Vicente del Bosque speak of a football player in this way, it is clear that he is one of the greatest legends.
Sergio Busquets, the hero from the shadows, the man without whom there would be no great Barcelona and Spain, has announced the end of an unforgettable career. A few more matches with Inter Miami in the MLS and the book that had so much to tell will turn its last page.
"It's been almost 20 years since I've enjoyed this incredible story that I've dreamed about so much. Football has given me unique experiences in beautiful places, with the best companions. It's time to say goodbye," one of the best midfielders of all time posted on Instagram.
He was lucky enough to play alongside Lionel Messi, Andres Iniesta and Xavi Hernandez in Barcelona, and in Spain alongside the latter two and with Xabi Alonso, Fernando Torres...
They all made him a better player, but they wouldn't have been as good if Busquets hadn't "watched their backs", if he hadn't known how to calm them down with a safe pass when things weren't going their way.
"When I was managing Barcelona B, I felt we were missing something, and then Tito Vilanova and I saw a guy at our third team training who played defense badly, was poorly built and very slow. However, we also saw a guy who was incredibly good at escaping pressure. That's when I knew I needed someone like that in midfield - someone who was immune to pressure," Pep Guardiola once said about Busquets.
The great Pep then discovered the great Serge, who in the following years would grow into a midfielder that neither Barça nor Spain could do without.
The golden years of the "Blaugrana" and the "Furious" began very quickly, and Busquets was an irreplaceable link in the perfect machinery that conquered Europe and the world. With Barça, he won the Champions League three times (2009, 2011, 2015), and with Spain he was the champion of the planet (2010) and of the Old Continent (2012).
"Thank you to Barcelona, the club of my life - there I fulfilled all my childhood dreams. Thank you to Spain - it was an honor to represent it so many times and enjoy all the achievements that I will always keep in my heart," Busquets added in a farewell video.
What kind of player it was was perhaps best summed up in just two words by Madrid's "Marko": "Busquets is a legend."
Bonus video:
