1 Andres Iniesta could be made Barcelona captain next season

Lionel Messi’s hat-trick may dominate many of the headlines following last night’s Clasico victory for Barcelona at the Bernabeu, but at the start and at the end, in two decisive moments of the game, there was Andres Iniesta. The scorer of the opening goal, winner of the penalty that decided the match, and outspoken voice of the dressing room in the week preceding an all-or-nothing encounter for Barcelona, Iniesta has risen above personal tragedy in recent months to produce decisive displays for his club when they have most needed it. The number eight is no longer simply one of Barca’s best players, he is a team leader who could and should be rewarded with the captain’s armband next season.

The current hierarchy of Barcelona’s squad places Carles Puyol as captain, Xavi Hernandez as vice-captain, Victor Valdes as third captain and Andres Iniesta as fourth. With both Puyol and Valdes set to leave the club this summer, and Xavi likely to play less and less next year, Barcelona will restructure their captaincy at the end of the season, and Iniesta is a major candidate to assume the armband. If this week has served as his job interview, it couldn’t have gone much better.

The Fuentealbilla native has been building up to this moment for some time. Over the last few years it has increasingly been the midfielder who has spoken up and faced the music when the chips are down for Barca. In the middle of their Champions League humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich last season, it was he who gave the most convincing press conference of all of the club’s players. Iniesta didn’t bite his tongue, warning that the team ‘had to improve’ if it wanted to aspire to winning all available trophies once again – a line that flew in the face of the discourse of some of Barcelona’s directors, who would much rather have written the loss off as a ‘blip’ in an effort to pull the wool over the eyes of socis. Last week, meanwhile, amidst all the talk of Madrid preparing to ‘humiliate’ Barcelona, Iniesta again made a decisive intervention in the press room, saying that his team needed to be ‘brave’, ‘go out to win’ and think of their own merits, rather than their opponents.

Contrary to the public perception of him as a withdrawn, quiet type, in reality Iniesta is someone who is very clear about what he wants and exceptionally sharp in his analysis. When he speaks, his team mates listen, and though it is true that he is almost universally liked for his level-headedness and shunning of the spotlight, it is also true that he had no qualms with telling Cristiano Ronaldo to ‘shut up’ in a heated Clasico encounter a few years ago, while he was also resolute in his demands regarding a recent contract renewal. The midfielder isn’t someone to blow hot air for hot air’s sake, but he has strength in his convictions, and isn’t scared to stick his head above the parapet in the thick of battle.

Undoubtedly the biggest demonstration of Iniesta’s incredible character has come in recent months, when the midfielder has produced some of the finest form of his career in the midst of the personal tragedy of losing an unborn child with his wife Anna. Barcelona’s best player this year, few would have guessed that he frequently spent the night sleeping at the hospital before attending training the next day.

It is this incredible mental strength that makes him the ideal candidate to become Barcelona’s captain when Carles Puyol departs the club. As Albert Llimos revealed in Diari Ara last week, Barcelona want Iniesta to take another step forward next season and accept a new role within the team, overtaking current second-captain Xavi, who the club are conscious has lost some of his weight within the dressing room as his years advance.

In handing Iniesta the captain’s armband the club feel they would be giving him new goals to strive for, and that could be significant for a player who has won every collective trophy possible in his career. Now at the peak of his powers and a club veteran, the midfielder rises to a challenge like no one else, as exemplified by his outstanding performance at the Bernabeu on Sunday. According to Jordi Quixano in El Pais, Iniesta has long been desperate to leave a dominant mark on a game contested on Madrid’s home soil. Last night he achieved that goal.

When it was put to him earlier this month that he could be the club’s captain next season, Iniesta was typically clear in his response. ‘Whether I’m second or first captain, my role within the team won’t change’, he shrugged. That much is certainly true. Iniesta is already leading Barcelona form the front. The rest is a mere formality.

Elsewhere: Celta 0-2 Malaga, Granada 1-0 Elche, Espanyol 0-0 Levante, Valladolid 1-1 Rayo, Athletic 1-0 Getafe, Osasuna 1-2 Sevilla, Betis 0-2 Atletico, Valencia 2-1 Villarreal. Real Sociedad head to Almeria in the Monday night game.