Barcelona's legendary midfielder Sergio Busquets has announced that he will be leaving the team at the end of the 2022-23 season after spending 18 years at Camp Nou. Busquets has played his entire professional career with the La Liga giants, the same club where his father also played. In a video which he uploaded on Twitter, the 34-year-old announced that he will not be renewing his current contract which expires on June 30. Busquets has been the captain of Barca since 2021.
It has been quite a journey for the Spaniard who first joined the club when he was a 15-year-old. He has donned the club's jersey on more than 700 occasions and his trophy cabinet includes as many as eight League titles and three UEFA Champions League wins. Busquets has been an intergal part of the Barcelona's setup and has made a minimum of 30 appearances in each of his last 15 seasons with the senior team.
"It has been an unforgettable journey," Busqets said in the video confirming his exit from the club.
"Since I was a child coming to the matches, or watching them on TV, I always dreamed of playing with this shirt at this stadium," he added.
"The reality has exceeded all my dreams. I wouldn't have believed you if you told me when I arrived as a youth player that I would play 15 seasons for the best club in the world, the club of my life, of which I have been, am and always will be a fan, member, player, captain, and surpass 700 matches," he said.
Busquets made a famous midfield trio with Andres Iniesta and Xavi, the current Barcelona manager and it is fitting that his final game could be be a newly announced friendly against Vissel Kobe in Tokyo on June 6 with with Iniesta expected to play for the Japanese side and Xavi managing Barca for that fixture.