Xavi: The Present is Hernández

Alone on the pitch, Xavi is also alone atop the list of world's best, according to Farley (photo: Esjota, Twitter)

Last June, when Pep Guardiola was installed as Barcelona’s head coach, one of the first things he did was proclaim Ronaldinho, Deco and Samuel Eto’o as surplus to requirements.  While Eto’o would end up staying (for one season), the others were moved, Guardiola had made his intentions clear. The former captain and Catalan icon was going back to Barça’s roots.  With the icons of the last great Barcelona side asked to leave, Guardiola was going to hand over the club to one its own, and it was another Catalan born, raised, and trained midfielder that would deliver the club from the end of their uncertain era.

This new era will be seen by history as the time of Lionel Messi’s ascendancy, but Xavi Hernández is that reason why Barcelona (and the Spanish national team) have become historic.

The future may be Messi.  Actually, the future may be Iniesta.  But the present is Hernández.

Xavi led Europe in league assists last season and was the main reason behind statistical resurgences from Samuel Eto'o and Thierry Henry (photo: Otto Greule Jr/Getty Images)

Think back to May 6, 2009, when Barcelona fell behind Chelsea in the second leg of their Champions League semifinal.  It was de ja vu, a crushing reminder of the previous season.  Then, Manchester United’s Paul Scholes rocketed a goal eerily similar to Michael Essien’s, putting Barcelona out at the same stage.

But 2009 would be different.  At Stamford Bridge, Barcelona wasn’t a loose collection of talent clinging to the remnants of Ronaldinho’s fading promise and Deco’s passed prime.  The determination with which Xavi kept pushing his club gave the Blaugrana reason to think 2008 a bygone era.

No player in the world plays has the ball at his feet more often than Xavi.  No player has his vision.  No player has his skill in the pass.  He maintains Barcelona’s furious pace.  On the rare occasion Barça loses possession (or the even rarer occasion that it’s Xavi that gives the ball away), he is the one the leads Barcelona’s feverish pursuit to get the regain the ball.  Even at Stamford Bridge – when his club was put in a situation oh-so-similar to their crushing elimination one year before – his confidence was effusive, unwavering.

That was the difference.  Instead of looking for lost brilliance from Ronaldinho, they had Xavi, a man that had led his country to the European Championship the preceding summer.  As Chelsea settled deeper into defense, became more stalwart after Barcelona had a man red-carded, Xavi had his determination tested.  Continuously trying to feed balls through Chelsea’s defense, switching from Iniesta on the left to a pushing Alves on the right, or yelling and directing teammates that started to become discouraged by the dread of another 1-0 loss, Xavi was unwavering.

It wasn’t until the clock had also turned against him that Xavi’s persistence paid off:  a perfect ball rolled through the box, to the edge of the area, for an oncoming Andres Iniesta.  It was the 93rd minute of the second leg, but Xavi had let Barça through.

For Iniesta, it was immortality, but for Xavi, it was his confirmation as star, leader, and after a two year stretch that has seen him lead international and club teams to every possible title: legend.

Those three labels also apply to his coach, the man who put so much faith in Hernández.  When Guardiola was fading from his glory days with Barça, Xavi was ascending.  Perhaps it’s the time they shared as players (1998-2001) that garnered Pep’s trust.  Maybe it’s their position son the pitch (though not their styles).  Maybe it’s their shared backgrounds as Catalans.  Something made it clear to Guariola – clear from before he replaced Frank Rijkaard – that Hernández was going to be the key to the next great Barcelona team.

Hernández had always been an important player since breaking into the senior team, but this is also a player that was an unused substitute in the 2006 Champions League final against Arsenal.  Since then, as the virtues of that Ronaldinho and Deco team faded, Hernández’s (and Iniesta’s) importance increased.  The 2008 nadir underscored the need to phase-out the Ronaldinho-era.

At 28 years old, Xavi was best situated to become the attacking soul of the squad (with deference to Carles Puyol at the back).  While others will see this as Messi’s time (a contention affirmed by yesterday’s Ballon d’Or), Messi was not the player to get the most out of Samuel Eto’o.  Messi was not going resurrected a Thierry Henry that struggled throughout 2007-08, and Messi was not going to shepherd 23-year-old Andres Iniesta to his next phase of greatness.

Messi was not going to be the midfield presence that would allow Barcelona to go get Seydou Keita and promote Sergio Busquets, injecting some needed grit into an increasingly star-studded culture around the Nou Camp.  They didn’t need to replace the playmaking of Deco or Ronaldinho, as long as they were finally willing to build around their real cornerstone.

And when Barcelona fell behind by one goal at Stamford Bridge in their only measure of adversity during the 2008-09 season, Messi was not the man that led them back.

May 27, 2009, Rome, and with Barcelona up one, it is Xavi putting a perfect cross onto Messi’s head for the match-sealing goal.  Two meters farther to the right, and Edwin van der Sar can come out and get it.  One meter short, and Rio Ferdinand’s in play.  Back or to the left, a back-tracking John O’Shea can get to Messi.  Manchester United gave too much time and Puyol made a great play to make the cross possible, but it was Xavi – in a moment of literary poignancy – that enabled Messi to finish off Barcelona’s return to the top of the club footballing world.

Eleven months earlier, Xavi was doing the same for Fernando Torres, feeding the Spain striker beyond Philip Lahm for the only goal of the UEFA Euro 2008 final.

Carles Puyol is the captain and Lionel Messi is the starlet, but if you want to know who’s the best player in the world, look at the best club team.  Then look at the number one national team, and look at how they play.

Look who they want with the ball at his feet.

Look who they turn to, who leads them when they struggle, and who the coaches build their teams around.

Look at the one person who, were he not there, would be the most missed.

Xavi Hernández is the best player in the world, and for me, it’s not even close.  The voters for France Football must have some kind of secret pact of concordance for almost 100 percent of the electorate to see the world as so black-and-white.  I can understand Xavi finishing third.  I just can’t understand why there aren’t more people – 3, 5 percent of voters – who see what I see.  I can stand being wrong, but on this issue, I can not stand being alone.

Lionel Messi is a worthy winner of the 2009 Ballon d’Or, but he’s not the right one.

Xavi Hernández was the world’s best player in 2009.