All roads point to Chongqing for Iniesta

Posted Friday, April 20, 2018 by Marca.com

Barcelona are preparing to bid farewell to Andres Iniesta at the end of the season, and whilst no decision has yet been announced, all roads point to Chongqing for the veteran midfielder.

Over the course of the past few months, several Chinese Super League teams have been linked with the World Cup winner.

Tianjin Quanjian were the early favourites, whilst Hebei China Fortune were believed to want to reunite Iniesta with his former Blaugrana teammate, Javier Mascherano.

Chongqing Dangdai Lifan have emerged as favourites, mainly due to their pre-established links with Spain, as Jiang Lizhang is also the president of Granada.

MARCA has learned that the entire effort to bring the 33-year-old to Chongqing has been spearheaded by Lizhang himself, and he's attempted to use his sports marketing agency, Desports, as a tool to attract the Spanish international.

Context

Context is important here.

Desports has worked closely with Iniesta for a number of years and this partnership already seen the La Masia graduate travel to the city of Chongqing for various promotional events previously.

At one of these events there was even a promotional photograph taken in which Iniesta posed with the Chongqing Dangdai Lifan shirt.

Whilst all details surrounding the potential transfer are a closely guarded secret, Chongqing Dangdai Lifan are the team with the best chance of signing Iniesta, and the arrival of such a world renowned star would be a major coup for them, both in a sporting sense and commercially.

The club's only title came when they won the Chinese Cup in 2000, and the barren spell since then has really hurt local supporters as clubs from neighbouring Beijing have taken most of the glory.

Wuhan Dangdai have presented much of the fiscal backing to the club since they arrived in 2016, and securing the signature of Iniesta would act as a turning point for the future of the club.

Capability

It would illustrate they have both the pull and financial capability to bring in a star, arguably the biggest signing the Chinese Super League has ever seen.

Iniesta would improve the Chongqing club's brand on an international scale, furthermore, he would vastly improve the team as they look to try and conquer the top flight.

Lizhang has long held a candle for the Barcelona captain and there have been tenuous approaches in each of the past two summers.

The intention was to persuade the midfielder that he could end his career in China and not at the Camp Nou.

Despite signing a 'contract for life' with the Blaugrana back in October, it's now understood that retiring at the club where he's spent the entirety of his professional career is unlikely.

Comfortable

In order to help prepare the team for the Spanish international's arrival, Chongqing Dangdai Lifan have already signed Fernandinho and Alan Kardec.

After having been at Barcelona for such a long time, it's important that Iniesta moves to a club where he feels comfortable, so the good relationship he has with Lizhang will be significant as he won't be going to a totally alien environment.