Iker: Hello!
Sergio: Hello! We want to send out our best regards to all the followers of the Facebook of my friend and brother, Iker.
Iker: See you later!
What do you love the most – Sergio’s kiss at the end, the teammates/random guy in the background, Iker’s smile lines, the fact that they filmed this in an airport, Iker’s laugh…
The video is only 10 seconds long, but there’s so much to love!
Keep reading for a year-by-year list of the milestones in Iker’s life…
Courtesy of AS, in celebration of the birthday boy.
1981: Iker was born on May 20, the son of José and Carmen. They named him Iker because they liked the way the name sounded.
1st year: he spent it in Móstoles, with summers in Navalacruz.
2nd year: he began to kick the ball, but he was just average at it.
3rd year: he began to study at the Vicente Alexiandre school, but he didn’t play on the football team.
4th year: he chose to become a goalkeeper. His father brought him to play in the Joan Miró school, and he was given a shirt of Arconada as a gift.
5th year: he trained with his father, who told him, “go to the goal. I’ll shoot at you and you have to stop the balls.”
6th year: he played with 1o-year-olds: “they called me to play with them because I stopped balls well and no one else wanted to be in the goal.”
7th year: the Three Kings brought him kneepads and elbow pads. He was mischievous: he cut the cord of his mother’s sewing machine.
8th year: he was always the best in games. He kept being asked why he didn’t try out for a serious team.
9th year: he tried out for Madrid and was accepted. Antonio Mezquita said, “out of the 300, only one will get to the first team.”
10th year: he played for the Losada team, and then the Benjamín.
11th year: he played in the Meudon trophy tournament in Paris and finished second. Mendoza gave 12,000 pesetas to each one.
12th year: in the mornings, he went to class, and in the afternoons, his dad would take him every day to the Ciudad Deportiva.
13th year: he won the Premier Cup against Barcelona. They were honored in the Bernabéu and given a trip to Disney World.
14th year: he played in the Mundialito in Bolivia and won it.
15th year: he received his first salary, 15,000 pesetas. His parents gave him 200 pesetas each week.
16th year: on Nov. 24, 1997, Madrid took him from school to go with the first team to Norway.
17th year: he became a world champion with the U-20 team in Nigeria, along with Xavi.
18th year: on Sept. 12, 1999, he debuted in San Mamés. In the Champions, it was against Olympiacos.
19th year: he won his first Champions League in Paris, debuted with La Roja in Goteborg and went to the Eurocopa. He also won the Trofeo Bravo.
20th year: he won his first Liga in May 2001. On May 15, 2002, he won La Novena. He entered for César and was decisive.
21st year: in the 2002 World Cup, he stopped two penalties against Ireland. He won the Intercontinental Cup and the European Supercup.
22nd year: in June 2003, he won his second Liga.
23rd year: his worst moment with the national team. Spain didn’t get past the first round of the 2004 Eurocopa.
24th year: after a long and tough negotiation, he signed his first big contract, for 4.5 million in November 2005.
25th year: he played in his second World Cup, where Spain was eliminated in the round of 16.
26th year: in the summer of 2007, he traveled to Sierra Leone. In May 2008, he won the Liga.
27th year: champions of Europe with Spain, and decisive against Italy, after winning his fourth Liga.
28th year: he wa chosen for the second consecutive year as the best goalkeeper in the world by the IFFHS.
29th year: he won the World Cup with Spain, and the Golden Glove. He completed his collection of trophies with the Copa del Rey.