Iniesta was one of a number of world class talent churned out from La Masia that dominated Spanish and European football particularly from Pep Guardiola’s time in charge of the club.
The likes of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Pedro, Gerard Pique, Sergio Busquets among others all played key roles as Barcelona won three Champions League trophies between 2009 and 2015 as well as seven league titles since the turn of the decade.
Few players have been able to make the step up from La Masia to the Barcelona first team in recent years and Iniesta, who is still playing active football with Vissel Kobe in Japan, is not too surprised.
“That generation will never be repeated but what follows does not have to necessarily be worse in terms of how the club fares. It will never be same but it doesn’t have to be worse,” Iniesta told The Guardian.
“There have been all sorts of eras in the club’s history: young players used to get a chance in the first team when results were bad and they had to turn to the youth team. That happened in my era.
“But then you have the period when you have 10, 11, 12 players from the youth team in the first-team squad. It depends on who the coach is, the situation of the club, but I always think that a player in the youth system who is good enough to play in the first team reaches the first team, in one situation or the other.
“It was many years living this club, growing up here since we were very young, getting into the first team and staying there for 10, 12, 15 years, becoming captains. We were all formed here as people.
"It’s difficult for something like that to happen. It’s very difficult. We’re talking about Barcelona, a club with the best players.
"Víctor, Puyol, Xavi, me: we came up in a scenario to Busi, Pique, and Leo. We’re people who have been at the club our whole lives and we have that ‘plus’ that others don’t have."
