On Saturday week, 6th June 2015, the curtain will come down on Xavi’s time at Barcelona. The fitting final game, the Champions League final itself, will be the last time the spotlight shines on the little maestro in a Barcelona shirt. Off he trots into the sunset, the twilight of the brightest of careers spent in the middle east.
It has a familiar ring to it. One of Barcelona’s best ever midfielders spending semi-retirement in the middle east. Pep Guardiola ended up there too.
Both players ran the Barcelona midfield for years and both players adored their Catalan club. For both of these geniuses Barcelona was indeed more than a club, it was – and still is – a nationality and a religion rolled into one. As Xavi and Iniesta addressed the crowd at the Nou Camp after the last league game at the weekend, both men signed off their speeches with ‘Visca Barcelona i visca Catalunya’ – Long live Barcelona and long live Catalonia.
It’s normal when a great player retires, or comes close to retirement, that the media should talk about his future, about whether or not we might see him try his hand at management in the not too far off future. It’s almost a cliche. Reporters ask retiring players about their management plans almost as a reflex. But in Xavi’s case, it might be a pertinent question.
The similarities with Pep are just too abundant, and it wouldn’t take too much for Xavi to follow in his footsteps.
Xavi burst onto the scene in 1999, taking Pep’s place in the team when the elder was injured. The next season Pep moved off to Brescia and then off to Qatar afterwards. And Xavi took his Barcelona place permanently.
That was under Louis Van Gaal, since then Xavi has played under some top quality managers including Pep himself, and played alongside some amazing players. He’s clearly learned a lot. From the players he’s played with, the managers he’s played under and of the general soaking up of the Barcelona way. After all, he’s effectively studied philosophy since he moved into La Masia aged 11.
The managers of Barcelona (Luis Enrique), Bayern Munich (Pep), Manchester United (Louis Van Gaal), Chelsea (Jose Mourinho), Ajax (Frank de Boer), PSV Eindhoven (Philip Cocu), and Southampton (Ronald Koeman) were all either playing or working at the Camp Nou in 1999 when Xavi made his breakthrough. It’s probably the most learned, reflective team in history.
Not only is Xavi up there with those guys in terms of class, but he’s spent most of his career doing what they did, especially Guardiola and Koeman – and that’s breaking down defences.
It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Guardiola is such a visionary, such an important manager. Throughout his entire career he was faced with stubborn defences, teams lines up quite simply to stop him. Koeman faced a similar enemy.
Guardiola’s entire career was spent devising ways to create space, find cutting passes and break down defences. No one has spent more time studying defences than Guardiola, but rather than look for ways to make them better he looked for ways to break them down. Such is the life of a Barcelona playmaker.
That’s just how Barcelona have to play. It’s their philosophy, it’s what their fans expect and it’s their identity. But it’s also because most teams that play against them set up to defend, and it’s up to players like Xavi and Guardiola to break them down.
The ‘quarterback’ is how we describe Xabi Alonso, and it’s no coincidence that – even towards the end of his career – Pep would want to bring Alonso to Munich. There aren’t many players in the history of football who can break a solid defence with a single pass, and they’re usually the attacking players who know the most about defending.
If no one has spent more time studying defences than Guardiola, then that’s only because he’s older than Xavi.
And if it’s no surprise that Pep is a great manager, then it’s logical to think that Xavi can be too. He succeeded Pep as Barcelona’s playmaker – the most important role in a Barcelona side – and perhaps one day he’ll succeed Pep as Barcelona’s manager.
But for now, Xavi has two more matches to look forward to in Barcelona colours, and both of them cup finals. One in his home stadium and one in Berlin. And two wins – surely not unthinkable – would win Barcelona a second treble in six years.
With or without Pep Barcelona is still Barcelona, and with or Xavi Barca will still be Barca. The players don’t make the club, but the club moulds the players. Xavi will never be anything other than Barcelona, and like Pep, Xavi will never be anything other than genius.
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