Midway through Tito Vilanova’s last season at FC Barcelona, the club gave Xavi a contract through until 2016 – one which had a gross outlay of at least €30m, probably more.
I know that at the time there was a large body of firm opinion within the club’s football committee arguing that the deal offered should be one season at a fixed salary (2013-2014) and two where the salary would be based on objectives – how many games Xavi played, how long he was injury-free, and so on.
However, the then president, Sandro Rosell, intervened and authorised three-and-a-half seasons (from January 2013 until June 2016) at full salary. Only the great presidents take the bull by the horns and address the real situation, and Rosell wasn’t, by any stretch of the imagination, a great president (it was interesting the other day to read his testimony in the hearings over Neymar’s transfer funding that he signed such documents without reading the small print).
The team’s performance was still impressing the members; it was rumoured that Joan Laporta was planning to stand for the presidency again; Pep Guardiola had left many people under the impression that Rosell was partly to blame for his departure. The president had popularity – and votes – in mind. Ending or reducing Xavi’s lifespan at the club may have hurt him. He met the player over breakfast and – hey presto! – a deal was struck. Presidential privilege.
Hence one of the club’s all-time great players, still Spain’s greatest footballer in my mind, had assured salary until 2016 – in total the kind of money to make the eyes water.
I believe, implicitly, the people closest to him who told me during the World Cup that Xavi took a decision in June to leave Barcelona and play in Qatari football. Not a firm decision about which of the offers to accept, but that terribly difficult step to take, psychologically, in choosing to say goodbye to the club which he loves and which he has nourished since he was old enough to order a beer in a pub.
Intermediaries jumbled up those negotiations and there was a flurry of propositions – at least three – from MLS franchises. I understand that the David Beckham project in Miami, Seattle and Manchester City’s New York project were all after Xavi. Those, too, tempted him, but a firm and decisive conversation with his former team-mate and new coach, Luis Enrique, caused him to seek the reverse gear, to focus on staying with Barcelona as his main option and to turn up for the first day of training this morning.
Built in here is the idea that if he chose to save Barcelona two years of wages, totaling more than €20m, by leaving it is de rigeur – 100% established practice – that a player’s agent will negotiate him a slice of what he is saving the club. I know some agents who would fully expect a 50/50 split: “Pay us one year’s salary and we’ll go now, which saves you the second year’s salary. You come out well ahead on the deal.”
It’s clear to me that this process wasn’t fruitful between Barcelona and Xavi and that’s been part of the decision to stay, as has the fact that City’s New York franchise, where Frank Lampard and David Villa will play, doesn’t kick off until next spring.
Since Luis Enrique was appointed the current president Josep Maria Bartomeu has been saying: “Xavi has earned the right to decide whether he stays or goes.” I don’t think that’s how Luis Enrique will see it. It’s imperative he sets a tone, sets an atmosphere – unites the squad under his leadership. That starts from today. Whatever personal relationship he enjoyed with Xavi previously, for good or bad, however much respect he feels for Xavi’s career, he’s coach now and can’t afford the distraction of the other players wondering: Is Xavi staying? Is he going? Does he support the new coach?
Thus, I reckon, we can understand this week’s article in El Pais by the exceptional Luis Martín in which he announced that the conversation between the two men consisted of the new coach saying: “You are welcome to be part of this, I see your importance, but if you stay then don’t be complaining to me if you’re not playing as much as you’d like to.” Rules laid out firmly and clearly.
There are echoes for me here. When Frank Rijkaard took over in 2003 he was urged by the board who appointed him that Luis Enrique wasn’t the way forward – but he repeatedly gave the midfielder a starting place. When asked by Ferran Soriano (who is now trying to sign Xavi for New York City) why this was happening, Rijkaard argued that to win the dressing room he had to convert the old heads, and his management method (as opposed to that of Pep Guardiola) was to convince rather than to excise. Rijkaard testified that by winning Luis Enrique over, the midfielder became a force for good, someone who, whether playing or not, eventually emphasised the messages that the Dutch coach was putting forward to his players and who left, voluntarily, at the end of that first Rijkaard season.
His decision about when and how to leave also has echoes for me. Like Xavi, Luis Enrique suffered achilles problems late in his career and I well remember the game in October 2002, under coach Louis Van Gaal, where Barcelona ran riot against Alaves with Luis Enrique and Xavi both scoring in a rampant 6-1 win. The midfielder, then 32, stayed on the pitch too long given the pain he was suffering. As a result he couldn’t play again until the following February. From then until the end of the following season it was both bewildering and painful to watch. A truly great modern footballer worked his socks off, ran just as hard, showed all the same hunger – but his form just fell off a cliff. Things didn’t work for him, he wasn’t as influential and during his four-month lay-off something crucial – heaven knows how to define it – had left him for good.
Eight days after his 34th birthday, Luis Enrique knew it was time to stop, so he stopped.
Xavi’s case is different. His athleticism has been affected by age, wear and tear, massive amounts of stress and responsibility for club and country over the years and that chronic pain he suffers from. But he remains a footballer of vitality and brilliance. How to make the best out of the next year or two before he retires is a choice full of dilemmas, pitfalls and opportunities.
If he is to stay – even if it is only until the winter and a move to New York – then it’s vital that he works, encourages and plays like someone wholly committed and wholly energetic about the new coach and his project. Otherwise problems lie in wait.
What I’d like, what I fervently wish for, is that a true all-time great of football anywhere in the world, in any era, handles his decision-making with the same precision, boldness, grace, discipline and intelligence that he’s displayed while entertaining us over the last couple of decades.
GH – 24.7.14
The illustration here is by the brilliant @DanLeydon – one of his collection to feature in Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World. Check out his work here.
