Andres Iniesta could return to FC Barcelona after reportedly receiving an offer from president Joan ... [+]
Club legend Andres Iniesta could return to FC Barcelona as soon as January 2024 after receiving an offer from president Joan Laporta, reports claim.
The iconic former number '8' left Camp Nou for Vissel Kobe in 2018 following 22 successful years in Blaugrana.
With his contract in Japan expiring in January and a newborn baby in the family, it is widely expected that the scorer of the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final will retire.
The 38-year-old is said to long for a return to Spain. To this end, El Nacional claims that FC Barcelona President Joan Laporta, who wants to "recover all the legends of the institution", has offered "one of the most important" figures of recent club history a job.
While there has been constant speculation that Iniesta will one day join the staff of current head coach and former midfield partner Xavi Hernandez, Iniesta is said to "not want anything" to do with the bench and would instead prefer a role in the club's offices if not occupying an honorary position.
Laporta can help him out in this respect by making Iniesta the head of youth football, in an area where the president feels he can offer great expertise by making sure the La Masia academy's stars of tomorrow are adapting well and have everything they need.
After all, Iniesta is arguably its most famed product alongside Lionel Messi and Xavi. Unlike his former companions, though, as Messi lived in an apartment near La Masia with his father and Xavi is a Catalan from the northwestern suburb of Terrassa, Iniesta knows better than anyone how it is to up sticks and try and make it at one of the world's biggest clubs far from his loved ones.
Iniesta famously cried the first night he bunked at the academy, some 300 miles away from his parents after joining from Albacete as a 12-year-old, but persevered on his way to becoming considered one of the club's best ever players if not one of the sport's greatest midfielders of all time.
In October 2017, Iniesta signed a lifetime contract with Barca which left the door open to his eventual return one day.
