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MADRID. — Not many can rebuke Lionel Messi and get away with it, but Xavi has seemingly earned that right.
It would be difficult to find a more respected player in world football than Xavi.
Add in the fact that he’s known Messi since the callow, shy, 12-year-old Argentine boy arrived at the club, the Barcelona captain is possibly uniquely placed to tell the world’s best player to pull himself together.
He took on precisely that role in January, according to El Pais, and in doing so he seems to have changed the course of a season. It was after the 1-0 defeat by Real Sociedad in January when Xavi took Messi aside.
Prior to that game the players had just returned from the Christmas break, the South American players having been granted a slightly longer holiday.
The day before the game against La Real an angry Messi confronted Enrique during a practice game, which the manager was refereeing.
“It was all over a foul on Messi which Luis Enrique didn’t whistle for,” Jeremy Mathieu told Radio Monte Carlo. “Leo completely lost it with Luis Enrique.” The following day Messi was on the bench at the Anoeta — according to Enrique because the longer holiday he had been permitted meant he was short of fitness — and Barcelona lost 1-0. Messi called in sick for training on the Monday morning, citing gastroenteritis. But in a week in which Andoni Zubizarreta was fired as sporting director and president Josep Bartomeu called fresh elections, the upset in Barcelona was not confined to Messi’s digestive system. At which point Xavi stepped in with a dose of common sense.
“We can’t allow ourselves to repeat what happened last season and you know it,” the club captain is said to have told Messi, referring to last year’s trophy-less season which whimpered out under Tata Martino. “Do you want Cristiano to win the Ballon d’Or again? Stop f***ng around, Leo!”
What you see now — Barcelona as league champions, favourites for the Champions League and the Copa del Rey and Messi arguably in the form of his life — may be a direct result of that conversation.
It is hard to quantify precisely of course. Messi scored 23 goals in 22 games up to the Real Sociedad game and has scored 31 in 31 since then, so there’s no obvious statistical contrast. At Barcelona though, there are many close to the team who will say that difference in attitude has been marked.
What is clear — it was evident against Manchester City and confirmed against Bayern Munich — he is in one of those vein of forms which reignites debate over whether he is the greatest player in history.
If we thought we were witnessing the beginning of the end of his superiority at last summer’s World Cup finals, this season has been the riposte.
Indeed, it’s tempting to speculate whether football history might be different had Xavi delivered his bout of tough love a year ago. — Mailonline.
Online Reporter