Xavier Hernandez

Xavier Hernández Creus (Catalan: [ˈʃaβi əɾˈnandəs ˈkɾɛws], Spanish: [ˈtʃaβj eɾˈnandeθ ˈkɾeus]; born 25 January 1980) is a retired Spanish professional footballer who played as a midfielder, and is currently the manager of Q-League football club Al Sadd. He is known for his long spells playing for Barcelona (17 years) and internationally for Spain (133 caps).\n', ' Xavi joined La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, at age 11, and made his first-team debut against Mallorca in August 1998. In all, he played over 700 matches, a club record, and scored 85 goals. Xavi is the first player in the club\'s history to play 150 European and Club World Cup matches. Highly regarded for his humble persona and team ethos, Xavi is viewed as being the embodiment of the tiki-taka passing style of play, and is widely considered to be one of the greatest central midfielders of all time. He is also considered by many to be the greatest Spanish player ever.\n', ' With Spain, Xavi won the FIFA World Youth Championship in 1999, and the Olympic silver medal at the 2000 Olympics. After making his senior team debut in 2000, he was capped 133 times for the Spain national team, and was an influential figure in the team\'s successes. He played an integral role in Spain\'s victory at the 2010 World Cup, as well as their wins at both Euro 2008 and Euro 2012. He was named Player of the Tournament by UEFA at Euro 2008, and was named in the UEFA Euro Team of the Tournament in 2008 and 2012. At Euro 2012, with his two assists in the final, Xavi became the first player to register assists in two separate Euro finals, having set up the only goal in the final four years earlier. He had a 91% passing success rate at the 2010 World Cup and was named in the World Cup All-Star Team. After the 2014 World Cup, Xavi announced his retirement from international football.\n', '