Two La Liga legends are experiencing in what may be their last year at Betis and in football. In the case of Joaquin Sanchez, the Andalusian from Puerto de Santa María ( Cadiz) 41 years old. As for Busquets, the 34-year-old Catalan from Badia del Vallès (Barcelona) looks set to leave in the summer.
Joaquin and Busquets face each other tonight (8:00 p.m CET) in the second semifinal of the Spanish Super Cup. This will be one of the last titles they will compete for with their respective Verdiblanca and Barcelona shirts. This is of course if it is confirmed that they will stop wearing them in June . Although, in addition to LaLiga, they can still face each other in knockouts, who knows if in the finals, of the Copa del Rey and the Europa League. Their two clubs continue to aspire for these two titles.
Joaquin presents : A long and beautiful career
By age and protagonism, the goodbye of Joaquin, who will turn 42 on July 21, before the start of the 2023-24 season, seems more evident. He has only played one LaLiga 2022-23 game as a starter and five as a substitute. Furthermore, he started more than once in the Europa League (4 and one as a substitute) and Cup (1). Manuel Pellegrini seems to reserve him for qualifying tournaments, so he could be in the ‘eleven’ against Barça in Saudi Arabia.
Joaquin already announced his goodbye last season to the club where he holds the record for games played (483). But winning the Copa del Rey encouraged him to rectify and continue one more campaign. And in one of his recent television appearances on ‘El Hormiguero’, on Antena 3, he jokingly put suspense to his retirement. “The intention is that yes, that this is the last year. But this is very long…
And if Betis will qualify for the Champions League, they won’t kick me out even with hot water!”. He even recalled that he has weight in the club’s decisions “because I am the owner”. And he’s not wrong there. He does hold high number of shares he has in the club, almost 2% of the total capital. Focused on the world of television, he has already presented a 10-episode program on Antena 3 that has had great audience success in ‘prime time’. The show was called ‘Joaquin, the rookie’. During the show, he took his first steps in different professions.
Busquets is one and a half foot out
If he plays against Betis, Sergio Busquets will reach 700 official matches as a Barça player. He’s only behind Leo Messi (778) and Xavi Hernandez (767). Busi already announced his retirement from the Spanish NT and everything indicated that the contract that ends on June 30 was going to be his last with Barça. Xavi, his ex-partner and now his coach, already said that he will try to convince him to continue. And now he does not seem like an unreasonable option because his arrival at Inter Miami of the US Major League Soccer (MLS) could be delayed now that he will not be able to land together with his friend Leo Messi.
