Mes que un club- More than a club.
This philosophy is inherited in the hearts of every catalan who wishes to play for Barcelona some day. La masia is the building block for Barcelona. A football institution which has fabricated the greatest players of all time. And one of them is Xavi Hernandez.
Xavi is unarguably the most plebeian midfielder who literally sacrificed his goal scoring efficiency for his club and his country. Under Pep Guardiola he emerged as a true warrior. He was the perfect engine of Barcelona who took the passing game to a new level. This all started with a philosophy- pass the ball within 11 players until the opponents get frustrated. Because of this philosophy only barca has won 4 champions league trophies within 10 years. And the best part is that Xavi was part of every single champions league won by Barcelona. He is the unsung hero of barcelona but never grumbled. Probably because you are not taught to be selfish or mean at La masia. His submissive and unassertive nature, forced even the opponents to bow down. Last year was very crucial for Xavi and Barcelona. They were unable to grab a single silverware for the cabinet and all the blaugrana supporters were targeting Xavi for his non usual play. Now it was a blessing in disguise to have an extra ordinary player like Xavi in your team. Xavi had raised the bar for himself so high that anybody's extraordinary play is his usual. And nobody can contradict me for this as we all know how many times xavi has a record of completing the passes for 100% ratio. Incredible right? You cannot even have that record on playing fifa but that guy did it on the real pitch for multitudinous times. Sadly the supporters have changed, the media is more egomaniacal now. They all love the goal scorers but they don't know that it takes a certain amount of vision to create the space for scoring these goals. Many people even pointed out that Messi could not score 73 goals if there wasn't Xavi behind him. Xavi is the heart of Barcelona. He is the meaning of the motto of the club and no matter what people will say about him, they have to agree on the fact that there was never a substantial visionary than him. This guy loved Barcelona so much that he refused to go to another european club. And his love and selflessness for Barcelona eventually paid him off as he got a Treble in his last season. A kind of farewell every captain dreams of. Football was unfair to you Xavi but you gave everything for football and won 25 trophies in 24 years of your career. Now thats something to vouch for.
