"Like so many of the players, I started at La Masia at the age of 11. I can't ever imagine not playing for Barcelona, let alone not playing soccer for a career. I don't ever want to play anywhere else."
-- Xavi
The shouting of the crowd rises to a crescendo "XAVI! XAVI!" Xavi Hérnandez is waiting to take the free kick. The ball soars over the wall of players attempting to block it, and curves with a will of its own, and neatly finds its way into the goal, just out of the grasp of the goalkeeper.
He wakes up with a thudding heart, eyes shining in the dark. He knows it was just a dream, but one that would soon come true.
Xavi Hérnandez Creus, known the world over as simply Xavi, was born on January 25, 1980 in Terrassa, a suburb of Barcelona. It is inevitable that this will affect the way he grows up - living and breathing football. His family conversations are mostly about football - they are true culés - they don't know to be any different.
Xavi grows up, as does every little boy in the area, dreaming only of playing football. There is never a thought of any other choice. His biggest blessing - the club he revers more than anything right at his doorstep; it is also his biggest challenge - how to get be so good that he can get into La Masia.
It doesn't turn out to be so difficult after all. He is born with such talent, and the hard work that he puts in, ensures that he enters the Academy in 1991, at the age of 11.
By this time, the late legendary Johan Cruyff has already graced Camp Nou twice - once as player and the other as manager. He has established the concept of "Total Football", where every player in the team moves around the field not adhering to rigid positions, that has been seen in trading football playing till now. He is also instrumental in establishing the La Masia, the Barcelona Youth Academy, where Xavi learns to perfect his style of play.
He makes his debut for the 'A' team in 1998, scoring his first goal in August of the same year. However, it is not for his goal making abilities that he makes his mark.
His greatest achievement is in orchestrating the game on the field like a music conductor. The way he creates opportunities for players like Henry, Messi, Villa, Fabregas. In his own words, "I look for spaces. All day. I'm always looking. All day, all day. Here? No. There? People who haven't played don't know how hard that is. Space, space, space.....I see the space and pass. That's what I do."
And what a dancer he is with the ball literally glued to his feet. The tiki-taka, the entire philosophy of that style of play... he owns it.
But the Barcelona philosophy of humility also keeps him grounded. He is one of the few players who has never received a red card in his entire career. He's down to earth beyond imagination, letting his talent on the ground do the talking.
He is also the most respected player, not only in the FCB dressing room but also in the Spanish national team. Along with his long time friend Iker Casillas, the Real Madrid captain, bitter Barcelona rivals traditionally, he maintains equilibrium in a team that has strong nationalistic tendencies. Both Casillas and Xavi are honoured with the "Prince of the Asturias" award by the king of Spain himself.
He is also the player to win the most trophies...28 and counting... than other player. Yet he is first to heap praise on other players; one of the midfielders he admires most is Paul Scholes; coming from Xavi it is high praise indeed.
To his legions of fans however it is of absolute disbelief that he has never won the Ballon d'Or despite being nominated 3 times. However for Xavi the fact that he got to live that little boy's dream is his greatest achievement.
In the words of Pep Guardiola, "Xavi is a player who has the Barcelona DNA, someone who has the taste for good football, someone who is humble and someone who has loyalty to this club. From the first moment I saw him play, I knew he would become the brain behind Barcelona for years to come."
Words cannot really capture the talent behind the man; they seem superfluous in the face of such greatness.
Ballon d'Or winner or not, Xavi is undoubtedly a legend in his way....a role model revered by the players he has left behind in Barcelona, and for an entire generation of aspirants in La Masia and other countries across the globe.
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