In the early 2000’s I remember hearing about this great, talented player that could dribble past you in a phone booth and make the difficult things look easy on the field.

Shortly after hearing the stories, I watched this young player coming on for Barcelona, and he was already full of confidence. He was little and agile, able to turn and change direction like we all wish we could. I thought that was what all the hype was about, but I was wrong. He had the vision and the dribbling sense that you would usually see an experienced player possess at the end of their playing days.

But this guy was fast and his game looked to have it all, just like a genius would. When he came through the youth Academy and arrived at Barcelona first-team training, then-captain Pep Guardiola famously said: “This lad is going to retire us all.”

His name was Andres Iniesta, and he went on to become one of Barcelona’s greatest players. He has won La Liga nine times with Barcelona in just 14 seasons, and his trophy cabinet also boasts six Copa Del Reys, four Champions Leagues, and not least a World Cup winners medal.

Iniesta scored the only goal in Spain’s 1-0 win over Holland in the 2010 World Cup final. He won man of the match and earned Spain its first ever World Cup. Normally when a country loses in the world cup because of player they don’t like him, but that wasn’t the case in Holland, and that shows you how well respected he was.

He will leave a big hole in the Barca team. First it was Xavi, and now the last link in one of the world’s greatest ever midfields is leaving. A great player and a nightmare to play against because he was unstoppable.

A goalkeepers career is always different to careers of players in any other position. They tend to last longer, but one man from Italy took it even further because having a longer career doesn’t always mean you can keep up with the best out there.

Buffon has shown the world that he could keep going, and even when some asked when is he going to stop, he kept delivering the good for his team at the top level.

This season it all came to an end and one of Italy’s great goalkeepers said it was enough. The great part was that up until his last game for Juve, he still had everything in control. If he wanted to keep playing for Juve and the Italian national team he could. But he said it’s enough and the world will miss a goalkeeper that all the defenders, myself included, would love to have behind them. He is always focused and the most important thing is that he is a match-winner. Normally we say that about the man that scores you the goals, but a goalkeeper of Buffon’s quality has just as much impact by keeping the other team out.

Buffon has been at Juventus since 2001, playing over 500 games for the Old Lady and lifting nine Serie A titles and four Copa Italia trophies. Buffon is also a World Cup winner and won the UEFA Cup with Parma in 1999. The Champions League was the only major trophy that evaded him, largely thanks to Cristiano Ronaldo, who somehow scored 10 Champions League goals against Buffon.

All great things come to an end, as they say. It will be hard to see them go on to bigger and better things after such great careers.

#mmlove