FC Barcelona Legend Xavi Said Winning Competition Was ‘Touching Sky’

FC Barcelona legend Xavi Hernandez told FIFA that winning its Club World Cup tournament as a player was like “touching the sky”.

The legendary number six did so twice, in 2009 and 2011, on the orders of Pep Guardiola and remembers the experience fondly.

“It gives you the feeling that you touch the sky when you are club world champion,” the former midfielder beamed.

“You see different styles of play, you’ve played against teams from Oceania, South America and North America and, well, it’s nice.”

“I think it’s going to be a before and after this competition,” Xavi predicted, which was a nod to how the tournament has been restructured.

While the Club World Cup was previously a winter affair where a few clubs from the mentioned continents battled it out in a short tournament consisting of late knockout rounds in the Middle East, it will now take place across the Atlantic on US soil with 32 teams looking to make it through the group stage and then the final with lucrative prize money on offer.

The club of Xavi’s life Barca missed out on qualification while he still manned the Montjuic dugout, and will rest up on the orders of his successor Hansi Flick over the summer while bitter rival Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid represent Spain.

While Los Blancos have been drawn into a group containing Al-Hilal, Pachuca and RB Salzburg, Atleti must finish in the top two among Paris Saint-Germain, Botafogo and the Seattle Sounders to keep progressing.

Xavi believes that the new Club World Cup will be “an opportunity for the different clubs in the world to measure themselves at a very high level” and remembered a 2006 shock defeat to Brazil’s Internacional a few months after the Blaugrana had beaten Arsenal in Paris to claim their second Champions League crown.

“It’s difficult. You don’t usually know these teams that much. I remember that it is a different football, different, perhaps more physical, more contact,” Xavi quipped.

FC Barcelona hasn’t won the Club World Cup since 2015

FC Barcelona’s last victory in the Club World Cup came in late 2015 when Xavi had already moved onto Al-Sadd. It beat Argentine giants River Plate 3-0 in the final, thanks to a strike from Lionel Messi and a Luis Suarez brace.