Xavier Hernández Creus, professionally known as Xavi, is a Spanish football manager and former player, currently managing La Liga club Barcelona. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, renowned for his exceptional passing, vision, ball retention, and positioning.
Xavi joined La Masia, Barcelona's youth academy, at the age of 11 and made his first-team debut against Mallorca in August 1998. Throughout his career, he played 767 official matches, a former club record now held by Lionel Messi, and scored 85 goals. Xavi is the first player in the club's history to play 150 European and FIFA Club World Cup matches combined.
During his time at Barcelona, Xavi won eight La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League titles. He was a finalist for the FIFA World Player of the Year award in 2009 and the FIFA Ballon d'Or in 2010 and 2011. In 2011, he was runner-up to Messi for the UEFA Best Player in Europe Award. In 2015, Xavi departed Barcelona for Al Sadd, where he won four trophies before retiring in 2019.
Following his retirement, Xavi took over as manager of Al Sadd on a two-year contract in May 2019. During his tenure, he led the club to win seven trophies, including the coveted Qatar Cup in the Qatar Stars League. In November 2021, Xavi returned to Barcelona as the new manager, replacing Ronald Koeman, on a contract until June 2024.
At the time of his appointment, Barcelona was struggling both competitively and economically. However, Xavi revitalized the club and turned around Barcelona's form with the implementation of structure and new guidelines, while also playing a vital role in the signing of new players to strengthen the squad. When Xavi first took charge, the club was in ninth position in LaLiga, but by the end of the 2021-22 season, he led Barcelona to a second-placed finish.
Xavi continued to succeed in his role as manager during the 2022 summer transfer window by orchestrating the signing of world-renowned footballers, such as Robert Lewandowski, Raphinha, Jules Koundé, Andreas Christensen, and Franck Kessié. In January 2023, Barcelona won their first title under Xavi, following a 3-1 victory against Real Madrid in the Supercopa de España Final. Xavi would go on to win the 2022-23 LaLiga with Barcelona after amassing an astonishing 88 points in 33 games, sitting 13 points above second-placed Atlético Madrid.
Xavi is now regarded by many as a hero within the club for taking charge when Barcelona was arguably at one of the club's lowest points and quickly achieving extraordinary success as a manager in a short period of time.
