Barcelona’s Xavi Hernandez is surrounded by photographers before a news conference after a training session at the Barcelona training grounds Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despi near Barcelona, Spain, yesterday.
AFP/Barcelona
Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez confirmed yesterday that he will end his 17-year playing career with the Catalans at the end of the season to join Qatari side Al Sadd.
“I would like to announce my departure from Barcelona at the end of the season,” he told a press conference adding that at some point he intends to return to the club.
“This season I am playing fewer minutes, I continue to feel useful and important, but it is the moment for a change.”
As well as continuing his playing career with Al Sadd, Xavi will work with his two brothers and sister at the Aspire Academy with the intention of taking his first steps towards becoming a coach.
“We have an exciting project in Qatar. There I will continue to play football in Al Sadd, I have signed a contract for two years with the option for one more.
“I also have an exciting project at the Aspire Academy. I can learn how to be a future coach and sporting director.
“My principal objective is to return here, be it as a coach or sporting director.”
The 35-year-old is Barca’s most decorated player of all-time and could yet finish with two more titles with the Copa del Rey and Champions League finals against Athletic Bilbao and Juventus respectively to come.
A homage to the midfielder is expected when Barcelona celebrate winning the La Liga title, Xavi’s eighth league winners medal, at home to Deportivo la Coruna on Saturday.
As well as being one of the key figures in the most successful era in Barcelona’s history, Xavi was also an integral part of the Spain side that won three consecutive major tournaments at the European Championships in 2008 and 2012 and the country’s first World Cup in 2010.
In March he travelled to Qatar to meet Al Sadd club officials and will follow in the footsteps of Real Madrid legend and former international teammate Raul who played 44 games for Al Sadd, one of Qatar’s top clubs, between 2012 and 2014, before joining the New York Cosmos in October 2014.
On top of his success, Xavi will be remembered as the driving force behind Barcelona and Spain’s possession-based ‘tiki-taka’ style of football which led both sides to become the dominant force in European football at club and international level.
His departure follows that of other club heavyweights in recent years such as defender Carles Puyol and goalkeeper Victor Valdes as Barca’s style has evolved from an era marked by home grown players to one now defined by a superstar front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez.
Xavi almost left the club the end of last season after a first trophyless campaign in six years and a disastrous World Cup as Spain’s defence ended after just two games, but was reportedly convinced by new coach and former teammate Luis Enrique to stay on.
However, even under Enrique’s orders his influence has waned with the majority of his 41 appearances coming off the bench, particularly in the biggest matches of the season.
Irreplaceable Xavi calls time on Barca career
If you ask Barcelona and Spain fans about their most cherished footballing memories over the past decade the chances are they will involve an exquisite intervention from midfield maestro Xavi.
Widely regarded as one of the best playmakers the game has produced, Xavi has been the tireless dynamo at the heart of a glittering run for his club and country, effortlessly controlling play in the central areas and able to pierce even the most stubborn defences in a heartbeat.
The 35-year-old from Terrassa announced yesterday he was leaving Barca after more than two decades with the Catalan club he joined aged 11, during which he has won 23 titles, including three Champions League crowns and eight La Liga trophies.
With Spain, he helped end a 44-year trophy drought at Euro 2008, sending Fernando Torres clear to score the winner against Germany in the final, and went on to lead La Roja to their first World Cup success in 2010 and another continental crown two years later.
Spain destroyed Italy 4-0 in the Euro 2012 final in Kiev, when Xavi created two of their goals including another for Torres, and the general consensus after the news emerged he had agreed a three-year deal with Qatari club Al Sadd was that Spain is unlikely to see a player of his quality again anytime soon.
“Xavi has been a key man in the run we have had in Spanish football,” Spain coach Vicente del Bosque said on Wednesday. “It’s hard to find a player coming through who can replace him. He is irreplaceable.”
He was close to leaving Barca after they ended last season without winning a major trophy and decided to retire from internationals following Spain’s flop at the 2014 World Cup.
New Barca coach Luis Enrique, a former team mate, persuaded him to stay on and he has made a vital contribution, mostly from the bench, to their charge towards repeating 2009’s treble of Champions League and Spanish league and Cup titles.
The La Liga triumph Barca secured with victory at Atletico Madrid on Sunday was Xavi’s eighth and he was given a standing ovation by fans of both sides at the Calderon when he replaced Andres Iniesta in the second half.
He can win another two trophies before he departs, with Barca through to the Champions League final to play Juventus on June 6 and set to host Athletic Bilbao in the King’s Cup final a week earlier.
Iniesta has largely assumed Xavi’s role this term, although with him having turned 31 this month Barca face a fiendishly tough task in finding an effective long-term replacement for the playmaking role.
Iniesta paid tribute this week to Xavi, with whom has he has won pretty much everything there is to win.
“I can’t find a compliment that does justice to what he represents, what he means as a person and a player,” Iniesta said on Barca’s website.
“He is a once in a lifetime player who has been fundamental in almost everything good at his club and with the national team. For me it has been ... a true pleasure and honour to have played my whole career by his side.”
