Where are they now? The 5 players Barcelona sold alongside Andres Iniesta in 2018
Andres Iniesta left Barcelona in the summer of 2018, but what happened to the other five players that the club let go around that time?
Iniesta left Camp Nou for Vissel Kobe as a club legend after making 674 appearances for the club and winning 30 major honours.
Barca sold five other players alongside Iniesta during the summer of 2018 – and we’ve checked to see how they’re all faring today.
Gerard Deulofeu
The first signing of the Ernesto Valverde era back in the summer of 2017, Barcelona activated a buyback clause inserted into Deulofeu’s Everton contract and he returned to the Catalan giants for just over £10million.
By January 2018, however, he’d made just 10 La Liga appearances before being shipped back to England, joining Watford on loan and eventually permanently.
The Spaniard swapped Watford for Udinese – both sides owned by the Pozzo family – and has remained in Italy ever since, but hasn’t kicked a ball since the beginning of 2023 due to a nightmare knee injury.
Lucas Digne
Digne never quite nailed down a regular starting berth after joining from PSG in 2016.
The French defender was sold to Everton two years later, and since then he’s been among the Premier League’s most quietly consistent left-backs.
He’s now at Aston Villa and is playing Champions League football in 2024-25.
Aleix Vidal
The Spanish right-back was signed for €18million from Sevilla in the summer of 2015, but due to a transfer embargo he wasn’t able to play for the club until the following January.
After an underwhelming stint, Vidal was sold back to Sevilla in 2018. He’s currently a free agent, having been released by Espanyol in 2023.
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TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to score 5+ Champions League goals for Barcelona?
Marlon
The Brazilian defender actually signed a season earlier on loan, but impressed enough at Barcelona B to earn a permanent move from Fluminense for €5million.
However, as soon as he was signed permanently, he was shipped out on loan to Nice for the season and then sold the following summer to Sassuolo for just €6million, albeit with a buyback clause.
You don’t need to be a genius to figure out that the club never activated it. Now 29, Marlon is playing in the MLS with Los Angeles FC.
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every Brazilian to play for Barcelona since 1990?
Yerry Mina
Barcelona snapped up Mina in January 2018 from Palmeiras in the Brazilian off-season and the towering defender became the first Colombian to play for the club.
He only spent half a season with Barca though. His stellar performances at the 2018 World Cup put him in the shop window and Mina ended up joining Everton that summer for £27.2million.
Mina now plies his trade for Cagliari and still plays for the Colombia national team.
