Former Barcelona captain Xavi has admitted that observing his former side this season is ‘making him drool,’ while comparisons between him and Lionel Messi are ‘a load of balls.’
After winning a remarkable La Liga, Copa del Rey and Champions League treble with Barca last term, Xavi headed to Qatari side Al Sadd after 17 years in the Catalan club’s first team with whom he won 24 trophies.
And from his base in Southwest Asia, 36-year-old Xavi has told La Vanguardia, ‘Barcelona have what they need to keep winning’.
Having lifted eight league titles, three Champions Leagues, two UEFA Super Cups, three Copa del Reys, six Spanish Supercups, and two FIFA Club World Cups, Xavi is well aware of what it takes to win titles while playing scintillating football.
And he revealed, ‘the way the team plays makes me drool, they’re at a stratospheric level’, assuring that Messi is currently in his best years: ‘I felt at my best between 28 and 32, and he’s looking after himself better than ever, he’s spectacular’.
Xavi also said that it makes him laugh when people say ‘Messi is playing like Xavi? What a load of balls, Messi plays like Messi, he does whatever he wants, he does everything well and is the best in history.
‘He doesn’t have to win a World Cup to prove it, [Alfredo] Di Stefano and [Johan] Cruyff didn’t win it either,’ he added.
Xavi retired from international football with Spain in 2014 having won two European Championships either side of a World Cup triumph in 2010.
Barcelona are currently top of La Liga with 76 points from 30 games, nine points more than Atletico Madrid in second, and 10 ahead of rivals Real Madrid, in third.
Messi – who has scored 37 goals in 38 games in all competitions this campaign – also heads into a Champions League quarter-final against Atletico, while faces the prospect of picking up the Copa del Rey once again after facing Sevilla in the final on May 22.
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