From Barcelona: Sources close to Andres Iniesta respond to reports of him joining Manchester City

A story on Friday from Yahoo! Sports reporting that Barcelona legend Andres Iniesta had been offered a player-coach role at Manchester City caused much excitement across social media.

The article claimed that Iniesta had been offered the chance to reunite with Pep Guardiola at the Etihad, and despite his previous comments that he wouldn’t play in Europe to avoid the possibility of facing Barcelona, was seriously considering it.

From Catalonia today comes a bucket of ice cold water poured on those rumours, with Barcelona-based newspaper Mundo Deportivo reporting that there is nothing to them.

Sources close to both Pep Guardiola and Andres Iniesta have told them that there is “nothing at all” to those reports, and unless of any great surprises, he will be joining Vissel Kobe, a Japanese team whose owner is the president of Rakuten, the main sponsor of FC Barcelona.

The Spain hero remains evens at the bookies to experience life in Japan, which is a generous price for those who like to do some online betting.

Iniesta to City? It appears to be a pipe dream and if Mikel Arteta is heading to Arsenal, which is looking almost certain, Pep will have to look at other options to replace him. Xabi Alonso or Xavi Hernández perhaps?

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Phase Two of the Champions range has been released!

Celebrate City’s Premier League win by picking up some official merchandise from the Champions range!