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63 minutes on the clock. Spain are taking on Portugal in the round of 16 in the FIFA World Cup in South Africa. The game is deadlocked at 0-0. Portugal have managed to strangle the creative engine in the Barcelona midfield. Spain, it seemed, were running out of ideas. And then it happened.
The Catalan picks the ball up in the middle of the park, strides forward with it before laying it off to Alonso and making a dash for the penalty box. Alonso finds Iniesta who combines beautifully with Fabregas to get the ball back before flicking it to Xavi who had neither the time or space to do anything with it. Or so the world assumed. Wrongly.
Without giving it a second thought the Spaniard laid the ball off to David Villa with the most elegant and nonchalant back-heel. Villa's first attempt was blocked by the keeper but the former Barcelona man put the ball away at the second time of asking. And that is all she wrote.
A moment of brilliance to decide the tie and keep Spain on course to win their first ever World Cup.
Xavi was at it again in the semi-final against the Germans. Another tactical encounter resulted in the game being goalless till the 72nd minute when Spain won a corner. Xavi spotted Puyol and crossed the ball with a perfect looping trajectory directed at the penalty spot. The ball seemed to be heading to Pique who had leapt into the air to head it home.
Full time: German 0-1 Spain.
Puyol had scored the all-important goal, thanks to a Xavi assist, that took them to Spain's first-ever World Cup final.
Spain eventually went on to win their first World Cup. He provided the most number of accurate passes, 599 with a passing success rate of 91%, and he crossed the ball inside the 18-yard box more than any other player performing in the tournament.
In the final he made 57 accurate forward half passes. Xavi also covered a lot of distance on the pitch – 80.20 kilometres throughout the competitions, which average at approximately 11.5 kilometres per game. In the final, he covered a distance of almost 15 kilometres.
Xavi's vision, pinpoint accurate passing and world-class ball control allowed him to dictate the flow of play while rarely relinquishing possession, most notably displayed during Spain's 2010 World Cup victory where he had a 91% passing success rate for the tournament. His ability to control some matches has earned him the sobriquet, "The Puppet Master".
Arguably the best aspect of Xavi is that there is a lot more to the man than what meets the eye. He may well be the most important Spanish player of all time, the man who helped change their history. In the words of Porto coach Julen Lopetegui, who ran Spain’s under-19s and under-21s along what could be called “Xavian” lines, he “changed football”.
According to Lopetegui: “Xavi helped us build, or see, a new player profile that ended up running through all levels of the national team. He killed off the myth of physicality above all else.
“There are lots of players who win things, but few who lay down concepts, ideas, who change the way we think – and Xavi did that.”
We concur and that's the reason why Xavi is one of our 50 Greatest World Cup Players.
