• Born on 25 januari 1980, in Terrassa (Spain)
• Barcelona B: 1997-1999: 61 games, 3 goals
• FC Barcelona: 1998-2015: 505 games, 56 goals
• Al Sadd: 2015-present: 34 games, 8 goals

"There are two types of football, physical football and football talent."

• Xavi Hernandez

"Football is simple but the hardest thing to do is play simple football."

• Johan Cruijff (former player and coach of Ajax and FC Barcelona)

"Xavi is football. He is one of those players that has made Barcelona what it is today."

• Thiago Alcantara

"If we analyse football as a collective sport, he is the most influential player I have ever seen. Others can move their team, but I have only ever seen one player, and that's him, who can move all twenty-two players on the pitch as he wishes, to his rhythm."

• Jose Etxeberria

"Xavi changed football. He helped us to build, or to see, a new player profile that ended up running through all levels of the national team. He killed off the math of physicality being above all else and opened people's eyes to the qualities of small, technical players, proven that you can attack and also defend with the ball. 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. At club level, the idea already existed and he perfected it; at international level, he imposed it. Possession, the speed of pass. He made it simple, and that's difficult. The intensity with which he played was vital and it showed that intensity is not what people often think it is. It's the rhythm of the game, the speed and intensity of the play itself: quick, simple, constant. He made every other player better. He gave the right pass, he gave continuity and he was always well positioned."

• Julen Lopetegui