Today the home ground of Barcelona Football Club, Camp Nou, will pay homage to one of its gladiators, Andrés Iniesta, with a special stadium mosaic, spelling out "infinit Iniesta" along the side of the 99,000 capacity stadium and an infinity symbol on either end.
The final salute to a legend of the game will see Iniesta lift the Spanish La Liga trophy, which Barca won at a canter, when they host Real Sociedad this afternoon.
A collector of 35 titles for both club and country, Iniesta's illustrious 16-year career with Barcelona includes four Uefa Champions Leagues cups, six Copa del Reys and nine La Liga titles.
His goal in the 116th minute of the 2010 Fifa World Cup final against Holland, which was played at the FNB Stadium, also gave Spain their first World Cup title.
On Wednesday Iniesta returned to the scene of the glorious moment of his supreme career. This time he was leading a Barca team in a clash against Mamelodi Sundowns for the Nelson Mandela Centenary Cup which the Blaugrana won 3-1 in front of over 80,000 fans who braved the cold to watch the star-studded visitors.
Capped 125 times for Spain, the famous jersey No 8 also helped his country to clinch two Uefa Euro championship titles in 2008 and 2012. Iniesta's special football talent was honed at Barcelona's youth academy, La Masia.
The Sunday Times had a sneak peak into the grounds of the famed La Masia.
Here are a few inside facts about the place where football legends are made:
• The name La Masia, translated from Catalan, means "The Farmhouse" after the original farm residences.
• The location was moved in 2011 to a modern facility 10km from Camp Nou.• Students are predominantly selected from the Catalonia region.
• The facility also trains youth basketball, handball, roller hockey and futsal (indoor soccer) players for professional leagues.
• Children from 11 years old are chosen and graduate at 18.
• The doors of the facility say "Masia 360 global", meaning they prepare and educate children for life.
• There is a privately-owned house within the facility as the owner did not want to sell when the academy was developed on the property.
• In 2018 La Masia housed 79 students across the various disciplines.
• The students often eat with senior first- team players such as Lionel Messi, who share experience and advise the thirsty young players.
• For students living outside the facility, La Masia has a taxi service whose drivers are specially trained to counsel the children during the long commutes.
• The students are allowed to use PlayStations on Fridays and Saturdays.
• The academy has agreements with surrounding schools to accommodate their rigorous training schedule.
• There is a wall plaque featuring graduates of La Masia who went on to first teams.
• If the students suffer academically, they are barred from playing matches.
• They have two fussball tables, with one team wearing Barca colours. The other team takes the role of archrivals Real Madrid.
• The academy seeks to instil loyalty to Barcelona in their students, but many of them are drawn away by lucrative deals in other clubs or leagues.
• Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola, Xavi Hernández and Cesc Fabregas are first-team players who graduated from the academy.
• In 2018 La Masia hopes to have five graduates in Marc Cucurella, Sergi Palencia, Oriol Busquets, José Manuel Arnaiz Díaz and Calre Aleñà for the senior first team...