Football Special Report: Xavi Hernandez breaks the record of Migueli
The Barcelona midfielder and the current Ballon d’Or finalist Xavi Hernandez has won it all during his 13 year long career. His recent milestone includes the highest number of appearances for the Spanish La Liga giants, Barcelona. The midfield maestro has
been carved into a great player by the Barcelona youth academy the La Masia.
13 years ago, Xavi Hernandez was a 17 year old midfielder trying to find his way into the first team of the La Blaugrana. It was the current Catalan coach Josep Guardiola who was in charge of the Barcelona midfield back then. This clearly states why Xavi
Hernandez became a fabulous player while playing under Josep Guardiola, he simply adapted to his style of play and wanted to become a player like him. With the Catalan boss introducing simple “tiki taka” style of play in Barcelona, just the way he used to
play during his time in the La Blaugrana, it was easy for Xavi Hernandez to adapt the same.
The Spanish midfielder, Xavi Hernandez got his first team opportunity when Josep Guardiola was injured during the game and the Spaniard did extraordinary well to impress all the managing staff monitoring his performance for the first time. Xavi played his
first game under Louis Van Gaal back in 1998. The game was against Lluis Sitjar in Mallorca for the Spanish Super Cup. According to Xavi Hernandez, the reason for his “good form” is because the fans and the technical staff have always been great towards him.
Related to this, Xavi said:
“I’ve been lucky enough to participate and at a club I love!”
Migueli, on the other hand played for 16 seasons at the club compared to Xavi Hernandez’s 13. The Barcelona legend made his debut in a very strange manner and under very different circumstances. Migueli started his career while Barcelona were under Rinus
Michels back in 1973 and he was serving the military back then. The centre back was performing his military services and he had only a month to play in the club because of the permit. He did not know about the rules as he kept on playing for two months straight
and was later jailed for two months as he broke the rules.
Both these players played for one club through and through. Neither did any of them go out on loan nor did they transfer to another club. Xavi Hernandez came on level terms with Migueli’s number of appearances after playing the game against Levante on Sunday.
The Spanish Champions won the game 2-1 at home even though their captain http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Lionel-Messi-c22296 was missing out. The Spaniard did a great job during the game as Barcelona were able to put
the pressure on the Los Blancos by moving 5 points clear from them on the points table.
With Xavi Hernandez featuring for the full 90 minutes against Levante, it means that he has managed to beat Migueli in terms of minutes and has equalized his number of appearances. Xavi Hernandez is currently 30 years old and he is definitely going to stay
in Barcelona and that was exactly what the La Blaugrana vice captain said:
“I’d love to finish my playing days here and with the team winning things, but that’s not in my hands alone I’m afraid.”
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