It is not just about the trophies it is about what he represents. In fact, Xavi himself talks about victory and defeat as “impostors”, about there being something deeper than success. A World Youth champion in 1999, he has also won two European Championships and the World Cup.īut it is not just what he won, it is also how he won. Twenty-five club medals make him the most successful player in Spanish history.
#Xavi football manager 2005 plus#
There have been eight league titles too, the first of them in 1999, plus three Spanish Cup trophies, six Spanish Super Cups, two European Super Cups and two Club World Cups. Taken before this year’s Champions League Final against Juventus, it wasn’t even complete yet.īarcelona’s 3-1 victory in Berlin was his fourth European Cup that’s four of the five that the club have won. In the picture of Xavi with all the trophies he has won, there are so many there’s something almost comic about the snap. “Stick them there with the rest of them.” You could almost imagine the removal men turning up at his new home, lugging furniture around, one of them pausing and holding up a European Cup in one hand, the Spanish Cup in the other. No one has played more times for the Catalan club no outfield player has played more times for Spain. His European career was over after exactly 900 senior games: 133 for Spain and 767 for Barcelona. And he couldn’t have wished for better company on his final walk, stepping out at the Olympic Stadium in Berlin and down the concrete slope underneath the main stand towards the team bus.Īlongside him was Sergio Busquets and together they carried the European Cup one handle each, the trophy swinging between them.Ī few days later, Xavi headed off to Qatar and semi-retirement, aged 35. Real Sociedad – 8 games, 6 points, -8 GDĢ0.It was one o’clock in the morning when Xavi Hernandez left the dressing room as a Barcelona player for the last time. Rayo Vallecano – 8 games, 11 points, 0 GDġ6. Atletico Madrid – 8 games, 13 points, +3 GDġ2. Celta de Vigo – 9 games, 15 points, +5 GDħ. Real Betis – 9 games, 19 points, +14 GDĦ. Real Madrid – 9 games, 20 points, +11 GDĢ.
#Xavi football manager 2005 full#
Here, we’ve taken a full look at the La Liga table over the past two-and-half months, to see how Xavi has fared in comparison to his adversaries.ġ. In that time, though, all three of those sides above Barca have played a game more, meaning Xavi’s men could actually go level on points with Real Madrid in the form table should they win that game in hand. That would put them fourth in the La Liga table since November 7, three points behind Real Madrid, two behind Real Betis, and one behind Sevilla in the same time period. Since Xavi’s arrival, Barcelona have played eight La Liga games, winning five, drawing two and losing just once. More recently, Barca were defeated by rivals Real Madrid in the Super Cup.īut there are signs of progress. There was a heavy loss to Bayern Munich in the Champions League, which resulted in Barcelona dropping in the Europa League for the first time since 2003-04. Since, then, it has not all been plain sailing. They won Xavi’s first game, a morale-lifting 1-0 Catalan derby victory with a team much changed from the Koeman doom times. We have a mission to rescue many things that were lost.” We need to take charge, have the ball, create opportunities, be intense. Barcelona can’t accept a draw or a defeat. Standing on the Camp Nour turf, he stated: “This is the biggest club in the world and I’m going to work hard to reach your expectations. He certainly knew what to say at his unveiling to strengthen the bond with fans, if it needed strengthening. Despite his relative coaching inexperience, he is a man steeped in the vaunted Barcelona way, someone who grew up at the club in the era of Johann Cruyff’s Dream Team and played for it in the epoch of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering pass masters. With Koeman at the helm, they were drifting on the pitch too.īarcelona had won just four of their first 13 games of the season and, just as significantly, were lacking something of the identity that one has come to expect of the men in Blaugrana.īringing in Xavi was held up as the antidote to that. So deep, indeed, that they were forced to let the great Lionel Messi depart for pastures new last summer. Since Xavi left Barca in 2015 to play for and then manage Qatari club Al Sadd, Barcelona have dug themselves into a deep financial hole. It is not an easy task for the 42-year-old Catalan, who was so successful over his 17 years as a Barcelona player. On November 6, the football world finally heard the news it knew was coming: Barcelona had hired legendary midfielder Xavi to replace sacked manager Ronald Koeman and, they hoped, lead them into a new era.
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