Now sublime Iniesta has reached the ZZ top after an incredible Euro 2012

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UPDATED:

21:31 GMT, 2 July 2012

Nods of approval could be seen across the continent: Andres Iniesta was named the best player of Euro 2012.

In six Spain games in Poland and Ukraine, Iniesta did not score once but appreciation for the 28-year-old extends well beyond goals — it is now as broad as Europe.

Simultaneously modest and devastating, Iniesta is acknowledged as something else. That could be seen two years ago in Johannesburg, when he did score at a major finals.

Top of the lot: Andres Iniesta rightly earned the Euro 2012 player of the tournament crown after helping Spain to glory in Poland and Ukraine

It was the winning goal in the World Cup final and Iniesta later talked of how, as the ball hung in the air and Holland defenders scrambled, he waited for his old friend ‘Isaac Newton’ to arrive.

Iniesta has not quite gained the inevitability of gravity but the reliability of his talent is unquestionable.

After Spain overcame Croatia in Gdansk 15 days ago, when Jesus Navas scored the only goal from an Iniesta pass, Fernando Torres stopped to discuss his colleague.

‘I’ve been playing with him since we were 15 and I have never, ever seen him play badly,’ Torres said.

My old mate: Iniesta now receives individual praise away from Xavi

Three days earlier in Gniewino, the isolated small-town base where Spain trained during the tournament, Iniesta had franked that opinion in a public training session.

In a 10-v-10, one and two-touch practice match, with three-feet wide nets and no keepers, Iniesta stood out even among the best squad on the planet. Xavi and David Silva were not far behind, but they were behind.

Tomato-red Spanish shirts had colonised this corner of northern Poland. Four black Spanish bulls were on the hillside above the municipal training pitch.

Inside the incongruous adjoining hotel, at Iniesta’s request, was a Scalextric. Colour everywhere; it was the pale lad who glowed.

‘Iniesta is really impressing me,’ said Zinedine Zidane shortly before Spain brushed aside France. ‘He reminds me of myself. But he is more pale than me.’

Iniesta’s un-Mediterranean skin pigmentation has led him to be mocked affectionately on Spanish TV as neon white. He is also portrayed wearing pyjamas, an old-school little boy.

As Pep Guardiola said famously: ‘Iniesta doesn’t dye his hair, he doesn’t wear earrings and he hasn’t got any tattoos. Maybe that makes him unattractive to the media but he is the best.’

Vicente del Bosque’s attitude to personal praise has been described as ‘allergic’ but even Spain’s coach conceded this to Spanish radio: ‘Andres is playing very well. Technically he is perfect and he plays so naturally, almost without effort. It’s like when Roger Federer plays tennis, he barely sweats.’

ZZ top: Zinedine Zidane's crown as Europe's best is seriously under threat

As a player Zidane had sweated excessively, but it is not just skin the two have in common – Iniesta is now encroaching on Zidane’s territory on the pitch.

Given that Zidane is among one of the clutch of true greats, that is some claim for Iniesta. But, two months after his 28th birthday, he has accumulated five La Liga titles, three European Cups, one World Cup and two European Championships. Now Iniesta is the player of Euro 2012.

At Euro 2008 that award was won by Xavi — Iniesta was in the team of the tournament. If there is a verbal measuring of Iniesta’s development it is that he is now separated from Xavi.

It is no longer ‘Xavi and Iniesta’ — or at least not as much.

Wriggle out of that: Photographers granted Iniesta his 'Maradona moment'

‘Four years have gone by so my responsibility on the pitch has changed and I’ve gathered more experience,’ Iniesta said a fortnight ago. ‘As the years pass, you just feel better; every year you get more responsibility and just feel better within the team.

‘So that’s the big difference, the passing of the years that makes a player improve and learn things he didn’t know before. I feel good.’

Sounds simple. It’s not.

Two photographs over the past month have shown Iniesta surrounded by first Italian then Croatian players, a la Diego Maradona v Belgium in 1982.

On Monday, deservedly, Iniesta was surrounded only by praise.

EURO 2012 SQUAD OF THE TOURNAMENT

This is the 23-man squad voted for by UEFA as the official ‘team of the tournament’.

Despite his role as Spain’s super substitute, there is no room for Golden Boot winner Fernando Torres. Only one Englishman, captain Steven Gerrard, makes the squad.

GOALKEEPERS: Gianluigi Buffon (Italy), Iker Casillas (Spain), Manuel Neuer (Germany).

DEFENDERS: Gerard Pique (Spain), Fabio Coentrao (Portugal), Philipp Lahm (Germany), Pepe (Portugal), Sergio Ramos (Spain), Jordi Alba (Spain).

MIDFIELDERS: Daniele De Rossi (Italy), Steven Gerrard (England), Xavi (Spain), Andres Iniesta (Spain), Sami Khedira (Germany), Sergio Busquets (Spain), Mesut Ozil (Germany), Andrea Pirlo (Italy), Xabi Alonso (Spain).

STRIKERS: Mario Balotelli (Italy), Cesc Fabregas (Spain), Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal), Zlatan Ibrahimovic (Sweden), David Silva (Spain).