Football Player's Biography 7: Xavi

Full name	Xavier Hernández i Creus
Date of birth	25 January 1980 (1980-01-25) (age 31)
Place of birth	Terrassa, Spain
Height	1.70 m (5 ft 7 in)^[1]
Playing position	Midfielder

Xavier Hernández i Creus, commonly known as Xavi (Catalan pronunciation: [ˈʃaβi]) (born 25 January 1980 in Terrassa, Barcelona, Catalonia) is a Spanish football player who plays as a midfielder for FC Barcelona.
Widely considered among the finest play-makers in the world, Xavi was named the official Man of the match of the 2009 Champions League Final as he helped Barcelona defeat Manchester United to win their third Champions League title. He was named Player of the Tournament by UEFA at UEFA Euro 2008.^[2] In all he has been capped 99 times for the Spanish national team, with whom he won the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
He is often considered to be one of the best midfielders in the world.

Club career

1998–2004

Xavi is a product of Barcelona's youth system and has been a regular at Camp Nou since the age of 11. He quickly 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 10^th in the league, sparking a renaissance in form for the club. Sustained impressive performances quickly meant he become 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.

2004–2008

He became 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.

2008–09 season

He was a main part of Barcelona's treble, performing with excellence in all three competitions: he 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 fine performances, perhaps the most significant one 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), and this performance and this win definitively led to Barcelona winning the 2009 title. 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 and also nearly scored as his shot from just outside the penalty box hit the post. 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.
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.

2009–10 season

During the 2009–10 season, journalists increasingly noted Xavi's contribution to the Barcelona side. For example:
In the 2009–10 season, Xavi continued his excellent form from the previous season. He once 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, Spanish 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.^[4]

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 on a 5– 0 home win. On 18 December he scored another goal against RCD Espanyol in a 1–5 win.
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.^[6]^[7]
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. ^[8]

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 Club World Cup and the FIFA World Cup. His successes on the European stage are no less estimable, with his having won the UEFA European Football Championship and complementing this achievement by twice winning the UEFA Champions League. These combined achievements have made him a winner of Europe's major titles at both international and club level. Xavi is also a 5 time Liga BBVA Champion and was a prolific star player of the Barcelona side that won the famed unprecedented Spanish treble, which culminated in a record 6 trophies, the sextuple, in one calendar year.^[9]

World Cup 2010

During the winter of 2010, Xavi's work as a playmaker was a factor in Spain's successful campaign for their first ever World Cup title. The veteran midfielder finished with a stellar 89 percent pass completion rate over the course of the tournament, completing 599 passes out of 669 passes attempted over all of Spain's 7 games.^[10] The sheer volume of Xavi's passing was impressive: among all players, even those who reached the final or the 3rd place match, Xavi led the field in passes attempted, passes completed, corners attempted (47), corners completed (26), and deliveries in the penalty area (15).^[11] Xavi was the only player to have attempted over 600 passes in the tournament, and likewise the only one to have completed at least 500 passes. His total of 669 passes attempted was 104 more than the next most prolific passer in the World Cup that year, Germany's Bastian Schweinsteiger. These numbers stand as a statistical testament to both Xavi's passing prowess and Spain's reliance on him to distribute the ball.