All About Sports: Xavi Hernandez

Xavier Hernández i Creus (born 25 January 1980 in Terrassa, Barcelona, Catalonia), more commonly known as simply Xavi, is a Spanish footballer who plays as a central midfielder for La Liga club FC Barcelona, where he has spent his entire 13-year career. He has been capped 101 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. Xavi is considered to be one of the best midfielders in the world. 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. 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. An injury to Pep Guardiola in the following 1999–00 season meant that Xavi became Barcelona's principal playmaker, a position he has retained ever since. He was the vice-captain in the 2004–05 season. In the 2005–06 season, Xavi tore the ligaments in his left knee in training; he was out of action for five months, missing the majority of the playing season, but returned in April and was on the substitutes bench for the 2006 UEFA Champions League Final.e 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. Xavi was La Liga's highest assisting player with 20 assists. He was also the highest assisting player in the Champions League with 7 assists. Xavi earned 29 assists overall that 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. On 3 June 2010, the Spanish, Madrid-based newspaper Marca awarded Xavi third place in the annual Trofeo Alfredo di Stéfano award for the best player in La Liga, behind only Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo.

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. 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 FC during a home match in the UEFA Champions League that saw Barcelona passing through to the quarter-finals with an assist by teammate Lionel Messi. He was one of the three finalists for the 2010 FIFA Ballon d'Or, alongside Barcelona teammates Iniesta and Messi, he finished second on the vote behind Messi. He narrowly defeated Lionel Messi to win World Soccer's Player of the year. On 2 January 2011, in a league match against Levante, 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. 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 Club World Cup and the FIFA World Cup. His successes on the European stage include winning the UEFA European Football Championship and the UEFA Champions League twice. Xavi is also a 5 time Liga BBVA Champion and played in the Barcelona side that won the famed unprecedented Spanish treble, which culminated in a record 6 trophies, the sextuple, in one calendar year. 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 qualifierXavi was named in Spain's squad for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, culminating in winning the World Cup title. The veteran midfielder finished with an 89 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. Of those who reached the final or the third place match, Xavi led the field in passes attempted, passes completed, corners attempted (47), corners completed (26), and deliveries in the penalty area (15).