There might be a day when football produces another Andrés Iniesta.

I'm not counting on it.

The most elegant player to ever grace any pitch in the history of the sport is officially retiring, bringing to an end a career with tremendous individual and team success that don't even begin to tell the story of his greatness.

For many, like me, Andrés Iniesta was the epitome of beauty. He was a football superhero, who moved so gracefully and treated the ball not as a mere object to be kicked around until it finds a target, but more as friend, a buddy, someone with whom he'd stroll through the park for 90 minutes until it was time to go home.

Andrés Iniesta played football with a tuxedo underneath his uniform, and no one will ever be able to convince me he didn't have actual magical powers. Because nobody can be that great at something without a supernatural gift that only a few human beings are granted.

He was Baryshnikov with a ball.

His vision allowed him to see things that no one else could, he could compete and win the ball back, and he could score big goals when his team needed him to. He was the perfect all-around midfielder. He won Spain's only World Cup and might actually go down in history as the only universally beloved Barcelona player, even for the Madrid folks.

Andrés Iniesta was immune to chaos. During Barça's greatest years, while Xavi Hernández was the one responsible for pulling the strings and keeping the tempo when everything was going well, it was Iniesta who would take the ball under pressure, snap his fingers and stop time when things were going wrong.

He would allow everyone else to breathe and get into their spots while he held off every opponent around him with his trademark Cruyff turns and simple but effective passes that would take the ball -- and the team -- away from the craziness. He wasn't just more talented than his counterparts; he was smarter than them.

When he carried the ball, seemingly avoiding all tackles by simply casting a spell that made his opponents disappear as he ran past them, Iniesta truly showed his special powers. He didn't need to be faster or more agile, he simply understood angles and changes of speed. He truly was a savant in every way possible.

And all we can say is thank you for making it look so beautiful.