Andres Iniesta announced on Friday that he will be leaving his boyhood club for a different adventure elsewhere when the season ends. Although he is yet to reveal where he will be heading, many believe the lucrative Chinese Super League will be the 33-year-old’s next destination.
Nonetheless, recent reports indicated that the player might be handed the opportunity to stay in Europe by Man City’s Pep Guardiola due to an existing relationship between the pair. The former Catalan boss, however, has moved to deny this bit of information, branding it as “fake news”.
@andresiniesta8 announces his goodbye #Infinit8Iniesta pic.twitter.com/Dpm3ZehpHa
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona) April 28, 2018
"There is a lot of fake news about the transfers, so I'm not going to comment about the fake news," Guardiola told reporters ahead of Manchester City's Premier League clash with West Ham.
"Andres had to decide his own future and he has decided to go to China to play there.
"He is going to finish there and after, he has to come back to Barcelona for the next generations, to help us be the club we are.
"He has decided to make the last years of his career in another place for many, many reasons. But if he wanted to compete still at a high level he would have stayed at Barcelona.
"We cannot offer him what he had in Barcelona here. He decided for other reasons, not just football terms."
Iniesta was an integral member of the Barcelona squad that enjoyed great success under Guardiola between 2008 and 2012. The pair won 14 trophies together in those four seasons.
