Awe. The feeling that has swept across veins, muscles and throughout the blood of so many watching Xavier Hernández Creus.
The greatest in Spain and one of the greatest in the world, even when you look at the history from when the beautiful game was merely a hobby on the streets of England.
Xavi has been the magician on the screens of hundreds of millions for 17 years. Before that, he was the breath-stealing young, smiling central player from Terrassa.
At 11 years old, Xavi signed for Barcelona having lived in Terrassa, 20 miles away from the Nou Camp, for his entire life. Such was the importance of family for Xavi that he continued to live in the small city in Catalonia. His mother asked him to do so and he obliged. At 35 years old and widely accepted as one of the greatest midfielders of his generation, he still visits his home town most days after training.
In an interview with El Pais in 2012 he said he was desperate to see his sister again because it had been 'several days' since he last gave her a kiss.
His Barcelona career began in July 1991. The day he found out he told his school friend, “Justri, something happened, but you can’t tell anyone." Naturally, Justri was scared of something terrible happening but Xavi cleared things up, "I signed for Barcelona."
The intelligence of Xavi came out in this situation. 12-year-old Justri was delighted with the news and wanted to tell everyone but Xavi wanted to keep things just as they were, "if everyone knows, they’ll look at me differently and I want to continue having the same friends.”
That theme to his play has shone throughout his career. Pass and move. Don't shoot if there is a pass to be made, choose the option that gives the team the benefit.
His first youth game for Barcelona came as Xavi thought he was in a try out for his favourite team. Yet his father had failed to tell him of Barcelona's decision to sign him before the match. So, full of motivation to impress, the holding midfielder Xavi scored a hat-trick. “You know what happened the day I signed with Barça? I played the best game I ever played in my life. I scored three goals, including a penalty! It was incredible." he told El Pais.
La Masia trained him, worked him and built on his remarkable talent and reading of the game. Yet in reality the intelligence had been with Xavi all his life. His mother says he first kicked a ball at 10 months old, one month after learning to walk. 5 years after that, he was playing football at school when his father noticed his ability.
Joaquim Hernandez-Creus said, “They were small, and of course, all of them went forward to score the goal and back to defend. You know, six-year-old kids. Everyone except Xavi, who always ended up alone in front of his goalkeeper.” How did 6-year-old Xavi respond? “Papá, if no one’s there and we lose the ball, the goalkeeper will be alone!”
After 6 years of training in Barcelona's famous La Masia youth academy, Xavi was promoted to Barcelona B aged 17. In the season of 1997-98 he was the key central midfielder in Jordi Gonzalvo's promoted side.
One year in the Barcelona B side was enough for Louis van Gaal, then in his first stint as the Nou Camp. He saw how good this small, gliding midfielder was and gave him his debut in the summer of 1998.
Even van Gaal, the most scrupulous of coaches, wouldn't have realised Xavi's impact in the first team. Away at Mallorca in the first leg of the Supercopa de España, Xavi Hernandez-Creus strode out in the Blagurauna of Barcelona at the Lluís Sitjar Stadium.
16 minutes later he was wheeling away to celebrate his first Barcelona goal. That first goal was all about Xavi being in space. Lurking on the edge of the Mallorca box he strode forward to meet a lay-off and strike past Carlos Roa, who had probably not heard of him seven days previous.
(Watch his first Barcelona goal here)
That first goal for Louis van Gaal’s Barcelona was all about space, and the exploiting of it. 17 years later and Xavi is still the best player in the world at exploiting space for himself and for the team. It is the solution to his problems, as he told Sid Lowe in 2011. “[You need to] think quickly, look for spaces. That’s what I do: look for spaces. All day. I’m always looking. [Xavi starts gesturing as if he is looking around, swinging his head]. Here? No. There? No. People who haven't played don't always realise how hard that is. Space, space, space. It's like being on the PlayStation. I think sh*t, the defender's here, play it there. I see the space and pass. That's what I do.”
The 1998-99 season was the first season for Xavi as he made an impression, replacing the injured Pep Guardiola, his future manager. It was he who Xavi was compared to in his early career, playing an important part in Barcelona’s La Liga winning side under van Gaal.
Xavi sparked the turnaround, ultimately saving Louis van Gaal’s job at the Nou Camp, in December 1998. On a four game losing streak and 19 points after 15 games in La Liga, Xavi scored in the 15th minute, at eighteen years old, to give Barcelona three points. Nuevo Zorrilla were the unfortunate side to face Xavi as he struck past a stranded Caesar from inside the six-yard box.
When Pep Guardiola left for Brescia in 2001, Xavi was the permanent replacement. The decision was obvious for the bankruptcy-threatened Barcelona. 1999’s La Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year had to take a more defensive role in the seasons between 2001 and 2003 yet still made 20 assists for the side, scoring 7 times.
Frank Rijkaard took Xavi’s role in the Barcelona side to a new level. With money issues no longer surrounding the Nou Camp, the club began to regain their solid La Liga elite status. From central defence to behind the striker, Rijkaard played Xavi in every role, making 36 appearances for Blaugaurana.
The 2004/05 season was Xavi’s time to become the central axis in the Barcelona side, he made the team something new as players like Lionel Messi began to climb through the ranks. 2005 La Liga Spanish Player of the Year was his as he made his 300th Barcelona appearance in the middle of his twenties.
December 2005 was the black point for Xavi. While some of football’s greatest players have black points like a headbutt or a World Cup red card as England lost, Xavi’s was an injury.
At La Masia, after 14 years training at football’s most famous training ground, Xavi tore his left knee ligaments to supposedly rule him out for the season. Yet an incredible recovery later and Xavi was playing against Cadiz at the end of April.
A tense couple of hours on the substitutes bench was all he could muster in the Champions League Final but it was he who lifted the big-eared trophy second as vice-captain. Not only was the biggest prize in club football’s Barcelona’s, but Xavi helped them to the La Liga.
Almost three years later exactly, Xavi had his hands on his second UEFA Champions League, along with his fourth league title and his first Spanish Cup.
In the meantime he was in the best form of his life as Spain won the 2008 European Championships. In defensive midfield, he took the Player of the Tournament and looking back, could have won the entire competition single handedly.
That was the day young Manchester United fans watched in awe as their supposedly unbeatable side were trashed by the majestic Pep Guardiola side which centred around Xavi, exactly 10 years after he replaced his new manager in the team.
He glided that day. ‘Space, space, space’ was what he said in 2011. That was the day he proved that ‘space, space, space’ beat the utterly astonishing attack of Rooney, Ronaldo, Tevez.
Alongside him that day, lifting the trophy with him at the end, was Andres Iniesta.
There has rarely been a midfield partnership so lengthy and so great in modern football. Xavi and Iniesta will forever go down as the creators of Barcelona history. The relationship between the two was the perfect machinery in the Rolls Royce that was Barcelona. Xavi’s wonderful, leathered dashboard continued to clock the miles he ran as the flamboyantly calm Iniesta strode further upfield, surrounded by 4 defenders at a time, like the Ferrari he is.
Iniesta’s style of play allowed Xavi to progress further forward that season as he beat his goalscoring record with ten from defensive midfield in 54 games. The goals, the passes, the trophies, the style earned him 3rd place in the 2009 Balon d’Or.
The treble season couldn’t be replicated straight after. Yet La Liga was Xavi’s for the second consecutive season as he led Guardiola’s side to 99 incredible points in the league, eclipsing every single team with the ease that Iniesta’s Ferreri beats a Ford.
One journalist commented on Xavi’s 2009/10 season with, Quite simply the best midfielder of modern football. It could even be argued that Xavi and Matthäus are the two best in this position in history. World class for several years now, it is the past three seasons in particular where the 30-year-old has been untouchable. Xavi’s passing is up there with Michel Platini, he creates countless goals with genius through balls while virtually never relinquishing possession.
No one, not even the most mystical Octupus named Paul around could guess what was to happen to Xavi and Barcelona the season after. Of course, their side was talented. Of course, everyone now knew of their pride in having a team built from La Masia. Yet six major trophies in 9 months was unheard of, until 2011.
It began in early June as the Spaniard signed a new 4-year contract at the club. The news was met with delight from the fans and his family 20 miles away alike. The next 400 days in Spanish football will be the greatest ever. Then there a the small sidecase of World Cup victory for Spain, where Xavi excelled once more.
Late November saw Barcelona humiliate Real Madrid as Xavi scored the third in a superb 5-0 victory. He scored less than a month later as Barcelona scored five again, against local rivals Espanyol. The free-flowing scoring continued under Guardiola and usually it was Xavi being provider. The end of the year saw him finish third in the Balon d’Or for the second consecutive season, behind teammates Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta such was Barcelona’s dominance. World Soccer Magazine saw it differently as he beat Messi to Player of the Year in their prestigious awards.
He netted against Arsenal after David Villa turned provider for once, as they progressed to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
2011 started with a bang of the highest proportions. The size that only comes along every quarter of a century or so at a club the magnitude of Barcelona. January 2nd 2011 saw Xavi start against Levante, matching Migueli’s appearance record of 549. Since, he has been pulling away rapidly to make his record almost unreachable.
Manchester United played in London, hoping to win their fourth Champions League in their own country, 10 years after the Old Trafford final at their home ground. Yet Barcelona were not only superior, but blasted them away with ease. Xavi, Iniesta, Villa, Messi, Valdes, Puyol, Pique, Pedro, Busquests, Alves, Mascherano and Abidal were arguably the 11 best players in the world in their respective positions. They all played for one team. The team that calls itself ‘more than just a club’; FC Barcelona.
They took London and Wembley Stadium by a storm. The Home of Football stood in shock as the Spanish Champions produced the best performance there may ever be at the new Wembley.
More than sixty percent of the ball was at a Catalonian’s feet yet they had 19 shots compared to United’s 4. Xavi was part of the greatest side of the century, and he was the cog in the centre of the park.
His La Liga win in 2010/11 was his sixth as he equalled Pep Guardiola and Ramallet’s record under the reign of the former. He won his second Spanish Cup, his fourth Spanish Super Cup.
He has pulled away since then. He has kept on running around looking for ‘space, space, space’ and if he can’t find it, we don’t know what would happen because after 17 years of senior football at Barcelona he has never failed to do so.
He made his 400th La Liga appearance at the Camp Nou, with his family driving the short distance from his hometown to the stadium, in January 2012. He scored 14 goals in the 2011/12 season, smashing his record of 10 from under Rijkaard. In December of 2011, he scored the second goal against Santos as Barcelona became Club World Champions for the second time. He finished third in the Balon d’Or; again. And again, he won the Spanish Cup, the Spanish Super Cup alongside the UEFA Super Cup as they lost La Liga to Real Madrid.
In 2013/14 he equalled Raul Gonzalez’ 144 Champions League appearances and will make his 150th in Berlin on Saturday evening. In 2013/14 he beat Migueli and Puyol’s record number of appearances in El Clasico.
The La Masia graduate from Terrassa has continued to be the aspirations of everyone, not only in Spain but in England. Coaches shout from the touchlines to their six-year-olds to stay back and defend rather than constantly follow the ball, like Xavi did. His refine style of play has revolutionised the game we all love and the small, average speed, average strength player from Catalonia in the idol of millions.
Passing and moving was perfected by Xavi Hernandez Creus. No one has run more in the past six years. Lionel Messi has scored, scored, scored but Xavi has been there throughout it to provide, to inspire and to be the core of the most successful team in football history.
Only one man will be compared to Xavi, and that is his partner Andres Iniesta. The partners in crime, the Rolls Royce and the Ferrari. The greatest pairing of midfielders we have seen so far. Lionel Messi may be the best player in history but Xavi’s impact on the game, combined with his talent which brings awe to so many around the world, makes him the greatest Barcelona player there is.
Everyone plays like Xavi now. Find space, receive, offload.
Such a talent does not come once in a lifetime, it just comes once.
Gracias, Xavier Hernandez Creus. Muchas gracias.