7 Great Footballers who never played in the Premier League

#4 Xavi

Barcelona v Real Zaragoza — Xavi stayed true to his commitment to Barcelona despite interest from the Premier League

A star product of the fabled Barcelona Academy, the Spanish midfield maestro eased into the Barcelona team from the Barcelona B team in the 1998/99 season and spent 17 years at the Nou Camp, where he went on to become one of the greatest midfielders of his generation. He won 8 La Liga titles, three Copa Del Rey, six Supercopa de Espana, two UEFA Super Cup, two FIFA Club World Cups, and four UEFA Champions League titles. In addition, he won two UEFA European Championships and one FIFA World Cup with Spain. Xavi is one of the most decorated footballers of his era and was the backbone of the Barcelona dominance in the 21st century.

The Spaniard left Barcelona at the end of the 2014/15 season and joined Al Sadd in the Qatar Stars League where he is still playing.

Xavi has since revealed that he had an offer to join Louis van Gaal in 2014 during his revamp at Manchester United but rejected the offer to join the Premier League giants to extend his stay at Nou Camp. With the players who had joined the United rooster that summer, Xavi perhaps would have been the ideal addition to make them click, yet United could not persuade him to make the move.

About the author

Deepungsu is a veteran football journalist who has been covering daily transfer roundups and news for over six years at Sportskeeda. He has written close to 9000 articles for the website, and has garnered over 19.5Million reads.

Deepungsu holds a PG degree in Microbiology and an MBA degree in Total Quality Management. He has an extensive two-decade long writing experience, which includes a decade of sports blogging. His writing prowess has even led his work getting cited on the legendary Franz Beckenbauer's Wikipedia page.

Inspired by Diego Maradona, Deepungsu played as an attacking midfielder for his local club at subdivision level in his initial years and scored an important goal or two. However, his all-time favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and evidently, he feels Argentina's glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment for fulfilling his long-standing dream. He is also an ardent East Bengal fan.

Deepungsu has been a Manchester United supporter since the year 2000. Unsurprisingly, his favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson and the Scotsman helped him get through some of the toughest days of his life. Like the fiery Scot, Deepungsu also leaves no stone unturned when it comes to accuracy in articles and only relies on credible sources.

Despite believing in Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland to create an iconic rivalry, Deepungsu reckons no one can match the longevity of Messi and Ronaldo. He spends his leisure time writing about life on his blog, reading books, and playing the guitar.

Know More

Edited by Victor R. Lopez M.