Xavi Hernández arrived at the Parc des Princes in Paris simulating a smile. He walked very straight, as if he wanted to make it clear to those present that nothing was going to bother him. That nothing was going to bend him. He waited patiently for someone to ask him about the words spoken hours earlier by Luis Enrique, PSG coach, in which the exclusivity of the Barça DNA was granted. And Xavi only had to repeat everything he had rehearsed like a litany. It was not advisable for him to wallow in the mud in the anteroom of the Barça’s return to the quarterfinals of the Champions League four years later.
The concepts that Xavi used were always the same: “Luis Enrique is one of the best coaches in the world”; “we are both looking for exactly the same thing”; “we both have Barça DNA”; and “I have a very good relationship with him”. “Don’t look for me, because there is no controversy. If not, ask him again,” Xavi tried to settle in a press conference in which there was no other protagonist than the specter of the Asturian coach. Luis Enrique, yes, he had gotten away with it.
“He wanted to protect himself”
“Luis Enrique has wanted to protect himself at the media level, but it is clear that we are both looking for the same thing. Obviously he has Barça DNA, so do I (…). I spoke with him two weeks ago. And I am lucky to have a good relationship with him and with his staff. I know what Luis is like,” added the Barça coach, who wanted to include in the bag the other two coaches in contention who were experienced at Barça and also in the Champions League quarterfinals, like Pep Guardiola with Manchester City and Mikel Arteta at Arsenal.
Xavi, yes, wanted to make it clear that the season in which he was captain of Barça and Luis Enrique the coach (that of the 2015 treble), he also had his role no matter how much the Asturian granted Rakitic the title, also in the Champions League won in Berlin. “That was a difficult year at the beginning. Then he turned around in an incredible way. I was hoping it would end well, and in the end it ended in a great way with a triplet and lifting the Champions League as captain. I also helped Luis Enrique a lot during a difficult time.. Perhaps Xavi was referring to the moment when he had to mediate for Messi to accept his coach after his tough confrontation in January 2015. But that, of course, is another story.
2024-04-09 17:39:26
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