Sergio Busquets: ‘You have to control everything – it’s like chess … I calculate it all’

After trophy-laden Camp Nou stay the midfielder discusses what next, his favourite season and splits in Spain’s winning 2012 squad

There was something heist movie about it, the story taking shape one man at a time, like the opening scenes from a film. First Andrés Iniesta announced he was leaving Japan. Then Sergio Busquets bade farewell to Barcelona. The next day, so did Jordi Alba. That afternoon, Paris Saint-Germain’s coach, Christophe Galtier, confirmed Lionel Messi was going. All in suspiciously quick succession, destination as yet unrevealed. It was easy to imagine a plot being hatched, to hear the deep voice of the Hollywood trailer: they had been the best; now the old gang was getting back together for one last job.

These are not just former teammates, who produced arguably the finest football ever seen; they’re best mates too, people Busquets says share “the same culture, the same jokes, the same upbringing”. At Busquets’ goodbye at the Camp Nou on Thursday, Messi signed off his video message with an “I love you”, while Busquets describes the Argentinian not only as the “best player of all time” but the pair of them as “personalities that fit, who trust each other”. Iniesta refers to Busquets as a “brother”. And Busquets, asked which player he could most confide in over the years, who’s the funniest and who the grumpiest, cracks up when the answer to all three is Alba.