Late on Friday evening Barcelona announced that they had agreed a deal to secure the return of former player and club legend Xavi Hernández as first team coach. A club statement read: “FC Barcelona have reached an agreement with Xavi Hernández for him to become first team coach for the rest of the current season and two more seasons. Xavi Hernández, a youth team product at Barça, has left his current club, Al-Sadd of Qatar, after talks held over the last few days with the owners of the club.” The former midfielder returns to his boyhood club, with whom he spent 17 trophy-laden years as a player and won eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues. Xavi replaces another Barça alumni, Ronald Koeman, who was sacked last week after a poor run of form which culminated in an embarrassing 1-0 defeat at the hands of newly-promoted Rayo Vallecano. Despite being in a desperate financial position and being forced to operate under stringent financial controls, the club felt they had no choice b
Xavi Hernández once said that out of everyone in his family, the biggest Culé of all was probably his mother Maria Mercè Creus. That was surprising coming from someone like him - very few players have identified with FC Barcelona, or become as closely associated with the club quite like he has. Until only recently no one else had played as many games for the club as he had - his all-time appearances record - 767 matches, was only overtaken by Leo Messi earlier this year. Xavi joined Barça in July 1991, registering for the youth academy, La Masia when he was just 11 years old. Like many of the boys in his age group, he gradually made his way up through the youth categories but he was one of the few to make the grade. A technical report from his time in the Under-14s noted his ability to conduct the ball out from midfield - “A good understanding of how to protect the ball, he hardly ever loses it”. Within three years he had become a regular for Spain’s Under-17s. Louis van Gaal included