Sergio Busquets Begins Coaching Career at Barça Athletic
Sergio Busquets is back at Barcelona. Not on the pitch this time, but on the touchline, beginning a coaching career that many around the club always felt was inevitable.
The 38-year-old has joined Barça Athletic as part of Juliano Belletti's staff, taking his first steps in management with the reserve side now competing in Spain's fourth tier, the Segunda Federación. He will work this season while completing his coaching badges, learning the trade in the same environment where he once fought for a place in the first team.
From the bottom rungs again
Barça Athletic were in the second division as recently as 2018. The slide since then has been steep: two relegations, a drop into the fourth tier, and a stark reminder of how unforgiving the Spanish pyramid can be, even for a club of Barcelona's stature.
Belletti and Busquets now share a double mission. They must drag the reserves back up into the third tier, but do it while nurturing the next generation for the Camp Nou. Results matter, yet the real success will be measured by how many players make the jump to the senior side.
For Busquets, the setting is familiar. He arrived at Barcelona as a teenager in 2005 and played 25 times for the reserves before Pep Guardiola promoted him to the first team. From that moment, he became the pivot around which an era-defining side revolved.
A career carved into Barça history
The numbers underline his place in the club’s history. Busquets made 722 appearances for Barcelona, a figure surpassed only by Lionel Messi and Xavi Hernández. Across those years he collected nine LaLiga titles, three Champions League crowns and a haul of domestic and international trophies that framed Barça’s dominance.
His influence extended far beyond club football. With Spain, Busquets earned 143 caps and anchored the midfield for the La Roja teams that conquered the world. He was part of the side that lifted the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012, embodying the same calm control that defined his club performances.
Miami epilogue, Barcelona return
When he finally walked away from Barça, the story did not end in Europe. In 2023 he joined Inter Miami, reuniting with former Barcelona teammates and close friends Lionel Messi, Jordi Alba and Luis Suárez in Florida. The move gave him a new stage, but the same familiar faces.
Busquets played 116 times for Miami, helping the club win the Leagues Cup in 2023 and then the MLS Cup in 2025, signing off his playing days with silverware on another continent.
Now he circles back to where it all began. From teenager in the reserves to club legend and world champion, and now apprentice coach at Barça Athletic. The challenge is clear: can he shape a new generation with the same authority he once showed in midfield?
