Xavi: I was a Nou Camp nobody until Pep arrived
XAVI Hernandez plays his last Ch a mpi on s League match at t he Nou Camp tonight, and he does so against the man who has had the biggest influence on his career — Pep Guardiola.
The two men have a long and successful history. First as team- mates between 1998-2000 before Guardiola then became Xavi’s coach in 2008.
Tonight, they will be on opposite sides for the first time.
‘I never got noticed at Barça until Pep became coach,’ he said ahead of the semi-final first leg against Bayern Munich.
A winner of seven league titles and three Champions Leagues, Xavi told El Peri
odico: ‘They never really noticed me until 2008 when I had already been here for 10 years. Louis van Gaal gave me my debut but, when he left in 2001, it changed. If you look at the record books, it’s laughable because I almost became obsolete.
‘I was mocked as being the guy who just moved the ball from one side of the pitch to the other.’
Everything changed when Guardiola took over and decided to build his team around Xavi, who was at the time considering his future in Spain, with Manchester United one of several te a ms interested in him.
Under Pep, he went on to win two European Cups against United and lift the World Cup with Spain. It has been an incredible last seven years to his Barca career, which will end this summer with a move to New York or Qatar.
‘The 17 years have flown by — I have suffered for half of it and enjoyed half of it,’ he said reflecting on a career that started in October 1998 against Valencia.
‘Van Gaal told the press: “I have a new player and he is worth two of the players he is replacing”,’ recalled Xavi. ‘I thought to myself: “What a responsibility!”
‘Van Gaal always put you under pressure. It toughened me. He was ahead of his time in the way he was prepared for games but sometimes he lacked tact.’
Xavi won two league titles under van Gaal and he was especially important during the 1999-2000 season when Guardiola picked up an injury and Xavi took his place in the team.
When Pep left for Italy, the f uture l ooked as if it belonged to Xavi but when van Gaal was fired the club fell into crisis and began questioning their reliance on passing football.
Xavi had to wait for Guardiola to return as coach before he was appreciated.
The 35- year- old also played alongside current coach Luis Enrique , although it is the man in the visitors’ dugout tonight who was his idol growing up.
He said: ‘I looked at how Guardiola played with his first touch, when he used the accelerator and when he applied the brakes. I looked at his body shape when he received the ball; I focused on everything he did.’
Guardiola played 479 games in 12 seasons for Barcelona before he bowed out in 2001 and he won 16 trophies along the way. He once famously said that ‘Xavi would retire him’ and his prodigy matched his mentor.
Xavi is expected to pick Qatar over New York at the end of the season, because it will also enable him to take a position at the Aspire Academy and begin his journey as a coach.
The i dea of ‘ Xavi the manager’, sets up t he possibility for an intriguing fourth type of encounter between the two men.
For now, it’s chapter three of their intertwined odyssey — Xavi’s l ast European game at the Nou Camp, and Guardiola’s f i rst match back as a rival coach.