 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Xavier Hernández i Creus | ||
| Date of birth | 25 January 1980 | ||
| Place of birth | Terrassa, Spain | ||
| Height | 1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)[1] | ||
| Playing position | Midfielder | ||
| Club information | |||
| Current club | Barcelona | ||
| Number | 6 | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1991–1997 | Barcelona | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps† | (Gls)† |
| 1997–2000 | Barcelona B | 61 | (4) |
| 1998– | Barcelona | 400 | (43) |
| National team‡ | |||
| 1997 | Spain U17 | 10 | (2) |
| 1997–1998 | Spain U18 | 10 | (0) |
| 1999 | Spain U20 | 6 | (2) |
| 1998–2001 | Spain U21 | 25 | (7) |
| 2000 | Spain U23 | 6 | (2) |
| 2000– | Spain | 107 | (10) |
| 1998– | Catalonia | 9 | (2) |
Xavier Hernández i Creus (born 25 January 1980), commonly known as Xavi Hernández or simply Xavi (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈʃaβi]), is a Spanish footballer who plays as a central midfielder for La Liga club FC Barcelona, where he has spent his entire 14-year career.
Xavi came through La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, at the age of 11. He made his first-team debut in 18 August 1998. Since then he playeed 665 matches, scored 70 goals and made more than 150 assists for above 40 players. He was an integral part of the sextuple-winning Barcelona side in 2009, the only time which a club has achieved six titles in a year.
He has been capped 107 times for the Spanish national team, with whom he won UEFA Euro 2008 and the 2010 World Cup. He was named Player of the Tournament by UEFA at UEFA Euro 2008.[2]
Xavi played for Spain at the young levels, before making his international debut in 2000.
He received five Ballon d'Or nominations, and finished on third place in 2009, 2010 and 2011 (in all these years, his colleague, Lionel Messi was the winner). He won the World Soccer Player of the Year in 2010, especially for his performance with Spain national team at the World Cup 2010.
Early life
Born in Terrassa, Barcelona, Catalonia,[1] Xavi is a product of Barcelona's La Masia youth system and has been a regular at Camp Nou since the age of 11. He made his way through the youth and reserve teams and was a key member of Jordi Gonzalvo's FC Barcelona B team that won promotion to the Second Division.Club career
1998–2004
His progression through the teams earned him a first team debut on 18 August 1998 in the Super Cup final, in which he scored against RCD Mallorca. His début in La Liga came against Valencia CF on 3 October 1998 in a 3–1 victory for Barcelona. Initially featuring intermittently both for the reserve and senior teams, Xavi scored the only goal in a 1–0 victory over Real Valladolid when Barcelona were 10th in the league. Sustained impressive performance meant that he became a key member of Louis van Gaal's title-winning team. Xavi finish his debut season with 26 matches played and winning his first Spanish League. He also was named 1999 La Liga Breakthrough Player of the Year.Xavi became Barcelona's principal playmaker, after an injury to Pep Guardiola in the 1999–00 season.
2004–2008
He was named the vice-captain in the 2004–05 season and helping the Catalans to win Spanish League and Spanish Supercup. He was named La Liga Spanish Player of the Year in 2005.In the 2005–06 season, Xavi tore the ligaments in his left knee in training; he was out of action for four months, missing a part of the season, but returned in April and was on the substitutes bench for the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final. He also win again Spanish League and Spanish Supercup.
2008–09 season
He was a main part of Barcelona's treble and scored the 4th goal in the 4–1 win in the Copa del Rey 2008–09 final against Athletic Bilbao, with a free kick. In La Liga, among many games, one of the most significant is the 6–2 El Clásico victory vs Real Madrid on 2 May. He assisted 4 out of 6 goals (once to Puyol, once to Henry and twice to Messi). Finally, Xavi helped Barcelona win the 2009 Champions League Final versus Manchester United, which ended 2–0, assisting the second goal by passing the ball to Lionel Messi's header after 69 minutes. Xavi was voted "UEFA Champions League best midfielder" for his contribution during Barcelona's victorious 2008–09 UEFA Champions League campaign.[citation needed] Xavi was La Liga's highest assisting player with 20 assists.[citation needed] He was also the highest assisting player in the Champions League with 7 assists. Xavi earned 29 assists overall that season.[citation needed]Xavi is under contract to Barça until 2014 after extending his contract during the 2008–09 season. The new contract will make him one of the club's biggest earners, and entitle him to €7.5 million a year.[citation needed]
2009–10 season
In the 2009–10 season, Xavi again topped the assists table and provided both the assists in Barcelona's 2–0 victory against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu. He was acclaimed the 2nd best player of Barcelona in a season-long voting as Barcelona won the league title with a record 99 points.[citation needed] On 3 June 2010, the Madrid-based newspaper Marca awarded Xavi third place in the annual Trofeo Alfredo di Stéfano award for the best player in La Liga, behind Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo."Quite simply the best player of all time. World class for several years now, it is the past three seasons in particular where the 30-year-old has been untouchable. Xavi’s passing is up there with Michel Platini, he creates countless goals with genius through balls while virtually never relinquishing possession."[3]
2010–11 season
On 9 June 2010, Xavi signed a new 4 year contract with the club, which may be automatically renewed up to 30 June 2016 based on number of games played.[5] On 29 November he scored his third goal against arch-rivals Real Madrid in a 5–0 home win. On 18 December he scored another goal against RCD Espanyol in a 1–5 win. In the Champions League, Xavi scored a valuable goal against English side Arsenal during a home match in the UEFA Champions League that saw Barcelona passing through to the quarter-finals with an assist by teammate David Villa.He was one of the three finalists for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or, alongside Barcelona teammates Messi and Andrés Iniesta. He finished third on the vote behind Messi and Iniesta.[6][7]
He narrowly defeated Lionel Messi to win Player of the Year designation from World Soccer Magazine.
On 2 January 2011, in a league match against Levante UD, Xavi made his 549th appearance for the club in all competitions, matching the record held by Migueli. Following this match Xavi is the player with most appearances with Barcelona of all time.[8]
2011–12 season
Xavi began the 2011-12 season in fine goalscoring form and seemed to grow in his influence of the team despite the long anticipated return of Cesc Fàbregas and the promotion of Thiago Alcântara to create added competition for places in Barca's star-studded midfield. A tap-in against Real Sociedad[9] was followed up by a delightful lob in the 8-0 mauling of Osasuna[10] with further goals coming from a header in a win over Racing Santander[11] and a wonderful 25-yrd free-kick versus Granada CF[12]. Xavi scored his first UEFA Champions League goal of the campaign when he netted the winner at the San Siro ensuring Barcelona finished top of the group with a 3-2 win over AC Milan[13]. It was announced on the 5th December 2011 that Xavi had once again made the final three-man shortlist for the FIFA Ballon d'Or[14]. Xavi made his 600th club appearance in El Clásico, a game which Barca won 3-1 despite going a goal down in the opening seconds of the match. The midfielder marked the occasion with a goal; a long-range volley which took a big deflection off Marcelo to wrong-foot Casillas [15]. Xavi won his fifth trophy of 2011, and 19th overall[16], when he scored and made a goal in the FIFA Club World Cup final against Santos FC in December. Xavi laid on the first goal for Lionel Messi before volleying in the second to claim his seventh goal in all competitions [17]. The eighth followed soon after, when Xavi scored the fourth in Barca's amazing 9-0 rout against CE L'Hospitalet[18].International career
Xavi Hernandez's abilities on the football pitch have led his teams to numerous titles and placed him among the most decorated footballers of all time. The playmaker has won major international titles with Spain and FC Barcelona in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the FIFA World Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. His successes on the European stage include winning the UEFA European Football Championship and the UEFA Champions League (three times). Xavi is also a six time Liga BBVA Champion and played in the Barcelona side that won the famed unprecedented Spanish treble, which culminated in a record six trophies, the sextuple, in one calendar year.[19] On 25 March 2011, Xavi earned his 100th cap for Spain in the 2-1 home win against the Czech Republic in a Euro 2012 qualifier.
He played for the nation at the 2000 Olympics, 2002 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2004, 2006 FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro 2008, 2009 FIFA Confederations Cup and the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
UEFA Euro 2008
Xavi Hernandez was named Euro 2008's player of the tournament after Spain defeated Germany 1-0 in the final. Xavi was dominant in midfield, making tackles, shaping attacks and driving Spain to their first silverware since the 1964 European Championships."We have chosen Xavi because he epitomizes the Spanish style of play. He was influential in the whole possession, passing and penetrating kind of game that Spain played," said Andy Roxburgh head of UEFA's technical committee.
- Semi-finals - Russia v Spain (0-3)
- Final - Germany v Spain (0-1)
2010 World Cup
Xavi was named in Spain's squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, culminating in winning the World Cup title. The midfielder was a crucial player for Spain, finished with an 90 percent pass completion rate over the course of the tournament, completing 599 passes out of 669 passes attempted over all of Spain's seven games.[citation needed]He was able to provide the most number of passes and he crossed the ball inside the 18 yard box more than any other player performing in that tournament. For example, in the final he made 57 accurate forward half passes.[20]
Xavi also covered a lot of distance on the pitch - 80.20 kilometres throughout the competitions, which means that at average he approximately ran 11.5 kilometres in each game.[21] In the final he covered a distance of almost 15 kilometres.[22]
- Round of 16 - Spain v Portugal (1-0)
- Semi-finals - Germany v Spain (0-1)
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