<img class="article__media-item" alt="Andrés Iniesta: With Andrés Iniesta, every ball feels kissed.” bad-src=”https://img.zeit.de/sport/2024-10/andr-s-iniesta-url-andres-iniesta-karriereende-fussballpodcast-bild/wide__822x462″ src=”https://img.zeit.de/sport/2024-10/andr-s-iniesta-url-andres-iniesta-karriereende-fussballpodcast-bild/wide” data-ratio=”1.77777777778″ decoding=”async”/>
For some hosts he is the secret world footballer. The other person watches his videos when he is sick and wants to get better. Oliver Fritsch and Fabian Scheler rave about it He can kick this time by Andrés Iniesta. The man who Spain Shot to his first World Cup title in 2010, announced his retirement at the beginning of October.
“He brought ball handling to excellence in tight spaces; no one had ever done it as well as him,” says Fritsch. “Not even Zidane.” He controlled the ball with his feet as if they were hands. He was the “possession player par excellence,” says Fritsch. It symbolizes Tikitaka, the dominant style of the period from 2008 to 2012, when Spain and FC Barcelona won almost everything. Iniesta even caused an increase in the birth rate in Spain with his two most important goals, the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final and the one in the 2009 Champions League semi-final.
“We miss him a lot,” says Scheler, who recognizes the soul of football in Iniesta. “We live in the physical age of football,” says Fritsch. Today, force is required. Would Iniesta have held his own in the Premier League? “I have doubts about that, because there were also remedies against Iniesta.”
Both hosts agree: the humble Iniesta should have held the Ballon d’Or in his hands at least once. It is worrying that strikers have almost always been doing this for many years. “Something went wrong.” So Scheler and Fritsch fill the Top 5 section with those footballers who never won this election but should have won it. Mister X also discusses a duo for the first time.
“He can kick” is the football podcast from ZEIT ONLINE. It appears every two weeks and is dedicated to the best footballers of our time. We talk less about tactics and more about what really matters in football: the individuality of the players. You can find all episodes here, all Powercard ratings here. Write to us! We accept criticism of the show and suggestions for Mister X at [email protected].
Scenes and texts we talked about in the podcast:
For some hosts he is the secret world footballer. The other person watches his videos when he is sick and wants to get better. Oliver Fritsch and Fabian Scheler rave about it He can kick this time by Andrés Iniesta. The man who Spain Shot to his first World Cup title in 2010, announced his retirement at the beginning of October.
“He brought ball handling to excellence in tight spaces; no one had ever done it as well as him,” says Fritsch. “Not even Zidane.” He controlled the ball with his feet as if they were hands. He was the “possession player par excellence,” says Fritsch. It symbolizes Tikitaka, the dominant style of the period from 2008 to 2012, when Spain and FC Barcelona won almost everything. Iniesta even caused an increase in the birth rate in Spain with his two most important goals, the winning goal in the 2010 World Cup final and the one in the 2009 Champions League semi-final.
