Barcelona have confirmed Sergio Busquets, one of the club’s midfield lynchpins for more than a decade, will depart the club this summer.
The veteran has confirmed he will leave Camp Nou this summer having made his first team debut in 2008, appearing in over 700 games for the Catalan side.
It’s likely the 34-year-old will accept a big contract offer from Saudi Arabia, 90min understands, but there is interest from Major League Soccer outfit Inter Miami.
Busquets will almost certainly bow out in Catalonia with Barça’s first La Liga title since 2019 with just one more win needed, having remained a regular part of old teammate and current manager Xavi’s starting XI this season.
His absence will leave a void at the base of Barça’s midfield. Frenkie de Jong, Pedri and Gavi are all expected to play large roles for the Blaugrana but Busquets’ unique style will be tough to replicate, according to a couple of club legends.
One such star is Juan Roman Riquelme. The Argentine’s time at Barça was incomparable to Busquets’, struggling during his sole season under Louis van Gaal, though he did become an influential figure in La Liga later for Villarreal.
Speaking in late 2022, Riquelme lavished Busquets with praise.
He said: “When he appeared, Sergio Busquets changed the concept of football.
“He’s unique in the world. There’s no other player like him.”
Busquets made a big impression on Dutch legend Johan Cruyff, too. Cruyff is an iconic figure at Camp Nou for revolutionising modern football and picked out Busquets’ best attributes when Barça were close to their late 2000s and early 2010s peak.
He said in 2008: “Positionally, he seems like a veteran with or without the ball. With the ball he makes what is difficult look easy: he disposes of the ball with one or two touches. Without the ball, he gives us a lesson: that of being in the right place to intercept and running just to recover the ball.”