Five things you may not know about Xavi Hernández

The previous Barcelona midfielder has returned residence as coach, the place many consider he was born to take.

Listed below are 5 belongings you may not know concerning the Barça icon.

Xavi Hernández is again in LaLiga Santander. Six years after enjoying his final match for his boyhood membership FC Barcelona, the Catalan icon has returned as first-team coach on the Camp Nou, a place many have believed he was destined to fill all through his profession.

Particulars of his brilliance as a participant and his promising managerial profession are frequent information, however these little-known information may not be.

His father was a footballer too

Xavi was born on January twenty fifth 1980 right into a footballing household; his father Joaquín Hernández performed for quite a lot of groups within the Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.

Enjoying in midfield, like his son would go on to do too, Joaquín represented groups throughout the area of Catalonia akin to Girona, Reus and Sabadell, even enjoying within the LaLiga Santander with the latter.

His idol on the Camp Nou: Bernd Schuster

Rising up, Xavi was after all a Barcelona fan and his favorite participant was Bernd Schuster. Xavi fell in love with the German when he went to the Camp Nou for the primary time to see a Gamper Trophy match, Barça’s annual curtain-raiser for every new season.

He was in awe of the midfielder and later went on to play towards groups coached by the German on 10 events, dealing with his Levante, Getafe, Actual Madrid and Málaga facet and even scoring a few objectives alongside the best way.

He scored on his debut for Barcelona

It now appears so way back that many can have forgotten, however Xavi scored simply 16 minutes into his debut for Barcelona’s first crew.

Not identified for his goalscoring exploits, the then 18-year-old burst onto the scene with a purpose within the Spanish Tremendous Cup towards RD Mallorca on August 18th 1998, a match which the Blaugrana went on to lose 2-1.

It was the primary of his 85 objectives scored over 767 matches for the membership.

He made the Ballon d’Or podium three years in a row

Xavi completed third in Ballon d’Or voting three years in a row: 2009, 2010 and 2011. The Catalan midfielder was recognised for his distinctive passing means by these voting for the award, however got here up simply quick as his teammate Lionel Messi received the prize annually.

Because the flip of the century, solely Xavi, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo can say they’ve been on the Ballon d’Or podium for 3 consecutive years, highlighting Xavi’s consistency on the time.

He is a lottery winner!

Xavi rounded out his profession in Qatar with Al Sadd after leaving Barcelona in 2015, earlier than taking the reins within the dugout in 2019.

Throughout his time in Qatar he made headlines by successful a lottery organised by Doha Financial institution, choosing up a prize fund of roughly €230,000.