Xavier Hernández Creus (Catalan: [ˈʃaβi əɾˈnandəs ˈkɾɛws], Spanish: [ˈtʃaβi eɾˈnandeθ ˈkɾews]; born 25 January 1980), nicknamed Xavi, is a Spanish football manager and former player who is the manager of Qatar Stars League football club Al Sadd. Highly regarded for his humble personality and team ethics, Xavi is viewed as being the embodiment of the tiki-taka passing style of play, and is widely considered to be one of the best players of his generation and one of the greatest midfielders of all time.Xavi joined La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, at age 11, and made his first-team debut against Mallorca in August 1998. In all, he played over 700 matches, a club record, and scored 85 goals. Xavi is the first player in the club's history to play 150 European and FIFA Club World Cup matches combined. With Barcelona, Xavi won eight La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles. Xavi came third in the 2009 FIFA World Player of the Year, followed by third place for its successor award, the FIFA Ballon d'Or, in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he was runner up to Lionel Messi for the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. In 2015, he departed Barcelona for Al Sadd, where he won four trophies before retiring in 2019.
Statistics for this Xoptio
Greatest Midfielder Of All Time (GOAT) 50
%
50
% Perhaps Second But Not Greatest
Greatest Playmaker 50
%
50
% Imperfect Player
See statistics
