Guardiola 'eyeing a reunion with Barcelona star Iniesta at Manchester City'

As if Manchester City needed any other world class midfielders, reports suggest Pep Guardiola is considering bringing former Barcelona man Andres Iniesta to the Etihad this summer.

The 33-year-old won his 34th trophy this week in 15 years at the Catalans, scoring in the Copa de Rey final win over Sevilla, and will add his 35th with La Liga title in the coming weeks, finishing just shy of 700 games.

But despite signing a ‘lifetime contract’ at Barca it is expected he will leave the only team he has played for in his career, having been promoted through the infamous La Mesia youth ranks, and move to China will be confirmed this week.

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The chairman of the sponsors for little Chinese club Chongqing Dangdai Lifan said he is “positive” of signing the Barcelona captain for next season.

“I am positive on introducing Iniesta,” Gong Daxing, chairman of the club’s title sponsor SWM, told the state-run Xinhua news agency.

“Iniesta’s arrival would be beneficial for Chongqing and a great bonus for our brand,” Gong added.

But according to Spanish sports newspaper AS, Guardiola will try and use his prior relationship with Iniesta to lure him to the Premier League, having won 14 trophies in four years together in Catalonia.

At just 33 he may well still have plenty of gas in the tank, especially as he started 24 of Barca’s 33 league games this season and eight of 10 in the Champions League.

The Spanish paper added: “Guardiola said recently that he would wait to see whether Iniesta is prepared to move on from the Nou Camp before speaking further.”

Meanwhile, France Football has apologised for never awarding Iniesta the Ballon d’Or. “Forgive us, Andres,” wrote the magazine’s editor Pascal Ferre.

“For us, he wasn’t just a player, he was the player. His sacrifices for the team ultimately deprived him of greater individual recognition.

“Of all the absences on the list of Ballon d’Or winners, his is particularly painful. We can only hope he has an special campaign at the World Cup in Russia and repair this democratic anomaly.”