Xavi – Best Player of the World?
Xavi opened the scoring last night with a beautiful lob over Iker Casillas. He made a surging run into the box and finished off the move that he had begun, and this was just the beginning of a memorable night at Camp Nou.
Xavi, throughout the 90 minutes, kept moving the ball with such authority that he looked like a player in Play Station, who has all his abilities at 100 percent. On a night where all the attention and media hype was centred to the battle between Pep Guardiola
and Jose Mourinho and the battle between Messi and Ronaldo, Xavi stepped in and conquered everyone who came his way.
It is easy to forget about a player who does not score many goals and whose direct assists are not too many, but this isn’t the case with Xavi. He seems to be everywhere; he’ll win back the ball as many times as he passes it. It is his incredible energy
level and work ethic that accompanies his supernatural talents that led to him being head and shoulders above the rest last night – yet again in a big match.
The little midfield maestro can go unnoticed because of the more fancy players Barca have. In Messi, they have arguably the most dangerous player in the world and his skill level is from another planet. Likewise, Iniesta seems to glue the ball with his feet
when running with it and is immensely pleasing to the eye.
However, what Xavi does is that he gives such players a chance to express themselves. It’s a rarity that Xavi is outclassed in midfield by anyone else. I can’t remember a match where he has underperformed, such the levels of consistency and he really does
set a high standard for himself.
The Spaniard has won the World Cup which neither Messi nor Ronaldo have won. Xavi also won the Euro 2008 with Spain. He was voted the best player by UEFA in Euro 2008. Xavi was instrumental in Spain’s triumph in the summer in South Africa as well. Just
like last night, he along with Alonso dominated teams throughout the World Cup.
The idea behind Barcelona’s play is to keep possession and move the ball quickly. Without Xavi, this was just not possible. He is the one who controls the game. His deft touch and unbelievable close control are two attributes which make it nearly impossible
to take the ball off him. Add to that super game intelligence and unmatchable awareness, then it doesn’t surprise me that he hardly loses the ball and his pass success rate is more often than not above 90%.
His team mates have lavished praise on him time and again, with Iniesta stating that playing with Xavi is like a dream come true and suggested that he is unparalleled. Even the Ballon d’Or winner, Lionel Messi stated that Xavi deserves to win the award he
has won and heaped praised on the midfielder by suggesting that he is the one who makes Barcelona tick.
Questions have been asked on how to stop Messi and Ronaldo and we know that they can be marked out of game and have evidence for that as well. However, no one has got a clue on how to stop Xavi. He runs the show from the middle of the park and when you attempt
to man mark him, he just glides past you and once he receives the ball then you can just forget about it getting off him.
So, the question remains that who is the best in the world, Messi or Ronaldo? Well, the answer to that question should be a blatant XAVI is the best. Only people who understand football would know what influence Xavi has on Spainish national team and Barcelona.
People question Messi’s form for Argentina, one reason to that is Xavi isn’t an Argentinean.
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