Xavi Hernández
Person
Xavier Hernández Creus (born 25 January 1980), commonly known as Xavi Hernández (Spanish: [ˈʃaβj eɾˈnandeθ]) or simply Xavi, is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who played as a midfielder. He is currently the head coach of the Netherlands national team. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Xavi was renowned for his exceptional passing and vision. He is the all-time Spanish top assist provider in the UEFA Champions League with 30 assists. He spent most of his playing career at Barcelona and is one of the few players to make over 1,000 professional career appearances. Xavi joined La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, at age 11 and made his first-team debut against Mallorca in August 1998, age 18. For Barcelona, he played 767 official matches, a former club record—now held by Lionel Messi—and scored 85 goals. With the initial management guidance by Pep Guardiola and using the tiki-taka football philosophy, Xavi was part of a widely lau…