Sergio Busquets announces his retirement
The former Barcelona player, who currently plays for Inter Miami, will leave football when the season ends.
Sergio Busquets will retire from football at the end of the current Major League Soccer season, his current club, Inter Miami, has announced. The 37-year-old former Barça player stated in a video posted on social media that the following months "will be the last on the pitch," and that he is retiring "very happy, proud, and above all grateful."
The former Barça midfielder joined Inter Miami in 2023, where he reunited with former teammates Leo Messi, Jordi Alba, and Luis Suárez. Busquets made his debut in 2008 with Barça, the team of his life, with Pep Guardiola as his manager. His debut for Can Barça came on September 13, 2008, when Josep Guardiola gave him the opportunity—he already knew him from the previous season at Barça Atlètic—in a match against Racing Santander. Since then, Sergio Busquets' career has grown exponentially. A few months later, the center from Badia del Vallès would start in the Champions League final played and won in Rome against Manchester United. It was just the beginning of a legendary career.
He was a key player in the best Barça in history, alongside Messi, Xavi Hernández, and Andrés Iniesta, among others. His trophy cabinet includes three European Cups, nine La Liga titles, seven Copa del Rey titles, three Club World Cups, and three European Super Cups. He played 143 matches for the Spanish national team, including the 2010 World Cup triumph in South Africa and the European Championship two years later in Poland and Ukraine.
"I feel like the time has come to say goodbye to my career as a professional footballer. It's been almost 20 years enjoying this incredible story that I always dreamed of," says the former Barça player. "Thanks to Fútbol Club Barcelona, the club of my life, here I fulfilled the dreams I had as a child, I wore the shirt I loved in hundreds of games, I celebrated many titles and lived unique moments at the Camp Nou that I will never forget." Busquets played 15 seasons in the first team, even wearing the captain's armband. The player from Badia del Vallès is the player who has played third most official games for Barcelona (722), only behind Messi (778) and Xavi (767).
After these seasons at Camp Nou, Busquets embarked on the MLS adventure in 2023 with David Beckham's Inter Miami, where he was an undisputed starter, first under Gerardo Martino and now under Javier Mascherano, both also with Barcelona pasts. Inter Miami has five regular season matches left before the start of the play-off in the title. If he were to play in the MLS final, it would be on December 6. "The team now looks forward to his contribution in the final stretch of the season, in which he will conclude an extraordinary career in which he has won numerous titles and accolades, and in which he has earned a place among the best midfielders in the history of football," Inter said in a statement. It is the farewell of a legend much loved by all Barça fans and fans of good football.