Is Xavi really the best midfielder of this era?
As the Ballon d’Or results are drawing closer there are many questions flying around concerning who is going to be the winner. Even though there are many contenders for the prestigious award, there is no doubt that the race is only between two – the Spanish
midfielder Xavi Hernandez and the Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder. Both the players have been in extraordinary form since the past few seasons and even though it was Xavi Hernandez who helped his side win the FIFA World Cup 2010 in South Africa, it was still
Wesley Sneijder who took his team to the final of the international competition and also the UEFA Champions League.
Wesley Sneijder was the one who managed to dethrone Xavi Hernandez’s midfield during the semi final match of the UEFA Champions League. The former Real Madrid player managed to help his side towards a victory against Barcelona who looked to be in great form
last season. No matter how good the team was, with the help of Jose Mourinho and Wesley Sneijder being in the midfield, it was hard for Barcelona to dominate possession in the midfield as the Italian side managed to win the game 3-1 in their home ground San
Siro and managed to qualify for the final which they eventually won with the help of Sneijder and Diego Milito.
Xavi Hernandez is definitely an extraordinary midfielder but there is no doubt that to become one of the best he had to be a part of the best. The Spaniard is currently performing in a team he has grown up with and knows where to deliver the ball as they
all have been playing together since a while now. Xavi’s one touch and simple passing is incredible but taking it the other way round – if Wesley Sneijder was a part of “that” Barcelona team and Xavi Hernandez was a part of the Inter Milan side, there would
be a lot of difference. While Xavi Hernandez is the one who can lay out a perfect through ball for a striker like Lionel Messi, it is Wesley Sneijder who can even score incredible goals while performing his role in the centre of the pitch.
The Spaniard is definitely the one who controls the game while playing for Barcelona and for Spain but when it comes down to Wesley Sneijder, the responsibility is on his shoulders as he is not only a great assister but also an incredible goal scorer. Both
players are extraordinary but if there was one to be chosen from both it would have been Wesley Sneijder. Not only because he is an extraordinary goal scorer but also because he uses brain and power combined as he is ready to pull the strings of the game.
The Dutch midfielder managed to lay out two incredible passes for Arjen Robben during the FIFA World Cup 2010 final and there is definitely no doubt that if there was any other striker in Robben’s position, he would have scored. On the other hand, Xavi Hernandez
did not really bring much during that game because he was well dominated by the Dutch midfield and he did not really have the place to play that “killer ball” and that is the basic reason why he was substituted for the Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas who
later managed to lay out a terrific ball to Andres Iniesta who eventually managed to score to win it for his side.
There is no doubt that Xavi Hernandez is extraordinary but it is also true that the players that he plays with are amazing in their league. Moreover, Xavi has been a part of the Barcelona youth system and he has been playing with those players since a long
time while on the other hand it is Wesley Sneijder who can fit well in every team just like Rafael Van der Vaart who is showing great form even in a team like Tottenham Hotspurs who were simply nowhere to be found a few seasons back while Van der Vaart was
performing in one of the best teams in the world, Real Madrid.
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