How the 2010 World Cup defined Andres Iniesta

One night in Johannesburg, Andres Iniesta won Spain the World Cup. It’s a tournament that has come to define the midfielder.

The defining moment of Andres Iniesta’s storied career will surely be the goal — an excellent, volleyed finish deep in extra time — that won Spain’s first ever World Cup. Though perhaps for a player who was never much of a goalscorer the more appropriate moment came in the buildup to the winner, an audacious back heel to continue a move that would likely, if anyone else had been in his place, been over.

Although it was unusual to watch Iniesta wheel away in celebration as the ball nestled in the back of the net, it was fitting that such an ugly final would be a defined by a moment of brilliance from a player who had already risen above so much darkness over the course of that season.

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Before returning to the pitch for the second half of the 2009 Champions League final, Iniesta was given one instruction from the club doctor: “Don’t shoot.” Barcelona’s number 8 had picked up an injury shortly after the second leg of the semifinal against Chelsea, in which he scored the winner.

The final seemed to have come too soon for the Spaniard, but he insisted on starting having watched the first half of Barcelona’s last triumph, in 2006, from the bench. Iniesta further aggravated his injury in the first period, but still managed to have an impact on the showpiece, setting up a goal in Barca’s 2-0 win.

It seems odd now that a man who has started 25 of Barcelona’s 38 league games this season, aged a spritely 33, once struggled with injury. Between 2008 and 2010, however, Iniesta suffered serious muscle injuries eight times, with the season preceding the 2010 World Cup a particularly nightmarish spell for the Spaniard.

The injuries proved so bad that, the night of the World Cup final against the Netherlands, Iniesta went for a run in the hotel halls to prove to himself he was ok, even after doctors told him there was nothing wrong. Injuries weren’t the only thing bothering him, either. During preseason, Carlos Puyol informed his teammate of the tragic death of Daniel Jarque, a close friend of Iniesta’s. The 26-year-old had died of a heart attack in a hotel room in Italy having recently been named Espanyol captain.

The death of his close friend sent Iniesta into a freefall, an unease he has spoken about openly in recent years. “Not depression exactly, not illness either, not really, but an unease,” he says in his book, The Artist. “It was like nothing was right.” Though there was nothing physically wrong, Iniesta found himself unable to finish training sessions, with Pep Guardiola encouraging him to walk if needed.

His off-pitch troubles were reflected in his play, as the normally composed midfield maestro looked out of sorts for much of that season. That April, months before the World Cup, Iniesta picked up another injury. By then, he was also seeking professional help to deal with the mental health problems he had been struggling with for much of the year.

Then-Spain manager Vicente del Bosque played a big role in saving Iniesta’s World Cup dream, managing his international minutes masterfully and offering a much-needed outlet for the issues plaguing the 24-year-old off the pitch. “The coach has to understand that human relations have to be above the sport, above the competition,” del Bosque said a later Financial Times interview. “The conversations Iniesta and I had strengthened the bond we felt with each other.”

The winner in the final in South Africa, then, was more than a goal, more even than the winning goal in a World Cup final. It was a personal watershed for Iniesta, a moment of immense relief, as all the emotion and struggle of a nightmarish 12 months was released.

He had commanded respect before South Africa, but his performance in Johannesburg changed the way fans and pundits speak about Iniesta. “He’s a Barcelona player, but I don’t think of him like that, I think of him as football’s,” remarked Zinedine Zidane, just minutes before Iniesta announced his 22-year spell with Barcelona was over.

“If he had been called ‘Andresinho,’ he would have won the Ballon d’Or,”  claimed Sergio Ramos after Real Madrid’s first leg quarterfinal win over Bayern Munich.

The tributes had been flowing long before Iniesta’s farewell tour. Espanyol fans regularly give him a standing ovation when he leaves the pitch. He also joined a very short list of Barca players to get an ovation at the Bernabeu a few years ago, and receives affectionate cheers in many venues around Spain. As Sid Lowe wrote Monday in the Guardian, “He is every man’s in part because he is everyman: there’s a normality about him which is not entirely normal in football, and he is universally admired.”

Next: Russia 2018: The best player on every team at the World Cup

It’s probably the best way to describe Iniesta, whose quiet brilliance and humility have allowed other players, mostly less talented, to take the spotlight. Even on that night in Johannesburg, Iniesta shared the moment, taking off his shirt to reveal a tribute to his friend, Daniel Jarque, ensuring his name would be as linked with Spain’s first ever World Cup victory as Iniesta’s.