Barcelona's formal captain, Xavi Hernandez, gave an in-depth interview to El País in which he spoke about football, and its variations, Lionel Messi, Pep Guardiola and everything in between. At 37, Xavi has retirement in sight and looks to change the field for the bench.
When analysing Lionel Messi, who Xavi has never hid his admiration for, he says "Messi understand everything. It's a shame that they compare him with anyone else. Messi masters everything: the space, the time, where his teammate is and his opponent. Before he used to unbalance teams with ability and his strength. Now he does it naturally: he draws you in. He sees he has a marker and he knows that the marker is afriad, waits for another to come and then he waits for just the right moment to pass it. I saw that with LeBron James. He draws you in until he has someone free. We have worked on this since we were kids, to know where the space is and where the free man is. Even Ter Stegen knows it."
There was also time to chat about Real Madrid's Isco and Marco Asensio. "These guys are very young and I think they have to know what Luis Aragonés told me: "What do you like? Nice football or good football? And I didn't understand. And the signficance? Give me good football. I don't want to give names but many players have come into LaLiga, gone missing and left without a leaving a mark. Yes, tricks, but why? What tricks does Messi do? Messi almost never does tricks. Messi does his job. Messi plays good football and at the same time, plays such good football that it becomes beautiful."
