Xavier Hernandez Creus, best known as simply Xavi, has always had a passion for passing.
It was a passion born on the fields at La Masia, and cultivated through a trophy-filled career. Even now, as he embarks on his career as a manager in Qatar, the legendary Spanish magician remains a standard by which all playmakers in the sport are measured.
“I've been a passer since a young age. I liked passing with the rest of the players and my friends when we played football on the streets, in the main square, and at school,” he told the BBC in 2014. Xavi brought out that passion as a kid in Barcelona's youth academy and then spent the vast majority of his career with them, making him the poster child for both how the club plays and how Barcelona develops its homegrown world class talent.
Arriving at the club’s famous La Masia academy at the age of 11, Xavi had the best possible education for his eventual stardom. In the eight years he spent at the best soccer school in the world, he learned to become the perfect player for the pass heavy tiki-taka style favored by both FC Barcelona and the Spanish National Team.
It is little wonder that the peak of Xavi’s career coincided with the golden eras of both his club and country. From 2008 to 2012, Xavi led Barcelona to a trio of La Liga titles and two Champions League wins. His 2008-2009 season saw him pile up a career high-30 assists in all competitions as Barcelona won six trophies in one year, including La Liga, the Copa del Rey, and the Champions League. That season came off Xavi anchoring the central midfield for Spain as La Roja won the country’s first major trophy in Euro 2008.
Over the next four years, Xavi anchored Barcelona’s midfield to another two La Liga titles and another Champions League Crown. Spain, meanwhile, went to win the World Cup two years later and complete its dominating spell with a second Euro title in 2012, thanks in large part to their genius in the center of the park.
"If football was a science, Xavi would have discovered the formula,” Real Madrid Jorge Valdano once said of Xavi. “With a ball at his feet, no one else has ever communicated so intelligently with every player on the pitch.”
Xavi’s greatness stands out in a different way from many of his Barcelona’s contemporaries, but those other stars wouldn’t be the same without Xavi’s brilliance. As a central midfielder, he would rarely look to score a goal for himself and almost always look for a way to open up one of his teammates. He would receive a pass in the center of the park, create some extra space for himself with a 360 degree turn or some other jaw dropping feint, and pick out an open teammate.
Xavi’s passing is what made the Barcelona teams of the 2000s and early 2010s tick. Lionel Messi, Ronaldinho, or Luis Suárez may have been the players scoring the goals, but those chances never would have come at all had it not been for Xavi creating space around an opponent and finding one of those brilliant finishers through a sea of defenders.
Xavi also stands alone in terms of longevity at Barcelona. His 782 appearances over 18 seasons are a club record. He rarely left the field without finishing the entire 90 minutes and was extremely disciplined in his approach to the game. Amazingly, he only got sent off twice in his entire career and never once received a straight red card.
Xavi left Barcelona after the 2014-2015 season, another which saw the club win every major trophy available to them. By the time his 17-year run ended, he had won 24 trophies with Barcelona.
Xavi moved on to Qatar, where he finished his career with Al Saad after the 2018-2019 season, after winning a league title. Xavi took over as the Al Saad’s manager last spring, leading the team to the semifinals of the AFC Champions League and has the team in third place through 17 games. It is no surprise that he looks to have a bright future as a coach ahead of him, and he has already been linked to a move back to his home in Barcelona.
A return to the Camp Nou feels inevitable for a player so synonymous with the success and spirit of the club, a player who made passing an art, and made Barcelona and Spain some of the best teams to ever play the game.