Iniesta Hangs Boots After Spain Get The Boot
Spain midfielder Andres Iniesta announced his retirement from international football, after the 2010 World Cup winners were knocked out of Russia 2018 on penalties.
“It was not a good way to say goodbye, but football and life are like that,” said Iniesta, after his 131st and last appearance for his country.
“I am leaving with a nasty taste in the mouth.
“We screwed ourselves because we didn’t manage to make that extra step.” Spain coach Fernando Hierro left 34-yearold Iniesta on the bench for the last-16 match against Russia, but he came on as a second-half substitute.
Spain joined fellow big guns Argentina, Portugal and Germany in exiting the World Cup, but Iniesta believes the future for the Spain team is bright.
He said: “It’s harder than it might appear. “But there is a new generation, we have high-level players.”
Iniesta, who scored the winner in the 2010 World Cup final, is joining J-League club Vissel Kobe next season. Meanwhile, Hierro said it was not the right time to contemplate his future and rejected suggestions the team would have fared better had the Spanish federation not decided to sack Julen Lopetegui for taking on the Real Madrid job before the World Cup.
Moscow:
When Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe embraced at the end of a breathless World Cup classic, it was a striking moment that seemed to confirm the passing of greatness from one player to the next.
Everyone present at the electrified Kazan Arena on Saturday left the stadium knowing they had witnessed a special match, a knockout game for the ages.
And one player in particular set the spine tingling.
Mbappe is only 19 years old but he scored two goals and ran with blistering pace from his own half to win a penalty for the opener in France’s 4-3 victory over Argentina, a win that moves Didier Deschamps’ talented side into the quarter-finals.
It was a spell-binding performance that defined a match whose outcome signals France’s real potential to go all the way in Russia and claim their second World Cup trophy.
Mbappe was not even born when France won this competition on home soil in 1998. Mbappe, who was born on 20 December 1998, is technically still on loan at Paris StGermain from Monaco but is expected to join the French champions for 180m euros (£165.7m) as the second most expensive player of all time. Only the 200m euros (£177m) PSG paid for Brazil forward Neymar in 2017 surpasses that fee.
It is not just searing pace Mbappe is blessed with but sublime skill, quick thinking, two clever feet, a cool head, bravery, belief and a brutal eye for goal. His two finishes were predatory, low and powerful.
“It was an incredible performance from a centre forward who has the lot: blistering pace, goals, touch and technique,” said former England captain Alan Shearer, speaking on Match of the Day.
“At 19, to put in a performance like that, with millions watching and Messi at the other end, it was simply brilliant.” Mbappe, from the suburbs of Paris, only made his international debut last year. His rise to the top has been dizzying since he burst on to the scene in the 2016-17 season, scoring 26 goals in 44 games as Monaco reached the Champions League semi-finals and won Ligue 1.
His two goals here utterly wiped out Argentina’s gathering momentum and announced his supreme talent to the world.
Not since 1958, when the legendary Brazilian Pele, then 17, found the net twice against Sweden in the final, has a teenager scored twice in a World Cup game.
“I’m very happy, and it’s flattering to be compared to a great player like Pele but he’s in another category,” Mbappe said.
“Still, it’s great to join the list of players that have achieved such feats.”
The question many Argentine journalists are asking is: Where is the next wave coming from?
Argentina won the Under-20 World Cup in 1995, 1997, 2001, 2005 and 2007, but they now seem to be running out of emerging stars. It is not a problem shared by France. Barcelona’s 21-year-old forward Ousmane Dembele was on the bench, Antoine Griezmann is still in his prime at 27 and there should be much more to come from Paul Pogba at just 25. Alexandre Lacazette, Kingsley Coman, Adrien Rabiot and Anthony Martial did not even make this squad. Should Mbappe continue to perform as he did in Saturday’s thriller, this could develop into a very special tournament for him and France.