( NEARLY) ONE- CLUB MEN

Like Messi, these Champions League winners looked like they’d spend their entire careers at a single club – before a late career move...

IKER CASILLAS

After 725 appearances for Real Madrid, the goalkeeper departed in 2015 – his parents claimed he’d been forced out by president Florentino Perez. Casillas joined Porto and won the league in 2018. A year later, he suffered a heart attack, aged 37. He never played again.

STEVEN GERRARD

A European champion in Istanbul, Gerrard’s 17 campaigns as a Liverpool player ended with a 6- 1 shellacking at Stoke in 2015. He headed to MLS with LA Galaxy, but didn’t enjoy the lengthy journeys to away matches and hung up his boots less than 18 months later.

XAVI

If there’s a perfect way to sign off at your boyhood club, it’s by lifting the Champions League trophy. Xavi did that when Barcelona beat Juventus in 2015 – then he jetted to Qatar to join Al Sadd, playing for four more years before taking over as their manager.

ANDRES INIESTA

Xavi and Iniesta seemed joined at the hip for most of their career. Few would have been too surprised if Iniesta had pitched up at Al Sadd as well, but the playmaker flew further east to Vissel Kobe. Now 37, his current contract at the J. League outfit runs until 2023.