Xavi 550, Part 2/4 [English subs]

and he'll always try to play it in that perfect way.
Iniesta: He's a reference. He's a leader, he's always been like that.
Busquets: Even if he has a defender on top of him, if you give him the ball
you know he's going to invent something with it,
he'll play easily, he'll play well.
Puyol: He always knows what he has to do, if he has to pass deep to you,
if he has to calm the match down.
Valdés: He's a perfect player for Barça.
Puyol: He's our life insurance.
Vilà: I didn't do anything. Xavi's had that since he was born
since he started playing football.
Xavi: Those were really complicated times,
when my dad and I would go down to Barcelona, I felt badly.
When I was told "You're going to train with the first team,"
I felt like, damn, that feeling of anguish, that that's not my place.
I was 17, 18 years old and you don't have the maturity, the confidence.
And back then with the coach we had, how much he demanded of you in training,
if you missed a pass it was like failing a test.
All of that was very difficult for me, you had to be really quick,
and then there were the comparisons with Pep, and I felt like an intruder.
Like "Damn, this kid wants to take Pep's place"
when it was the total opposite. I wanted to associate myself with Pep, that's how I play,
my style, I want to associate myself with everyone.
That's what my family's like, it's who I am.
I want to be like this person or that person, be an accomplice.
And I was put in a face-off with Pep and that was my misfortune.
It was a really hard way for me to start off.
The surprise in Rome
[On the video before Rome] No, we weren't expecting it. We didn't expect it and moreover we were a bit doubtful
because [Pep] said "I want to have you guys for ten minutes, nine minutes" I think he said.
Eight or nine minutes.
Which locker room is this? Visitors?
We were all thinking "He's going to give us a final talk," we weren't expecting a video,
We'd just finished warming up and there was a screen set up right there.
And after that video it was impossible to lose that match. I mean, we were obligated to win.
That was an extra burst of motivation, and I think Pep nailed that one.
In the sense that it really reached us, the music, everything. It's very special, the memories are incredible.
Joaquim: There were like two years when I'd go with him every day.
Xavi: We went together every morning.
Joaquim: Every morning in the Van Gaal era,
and of course I began to live that world.
Xavi: Those were hard times.
Joaquim: Yeah.
Xavi: I didn't want to be compared with anyone, least of all Pep Guardiola.
I mean, it'd be like if now one player comes up and he's compared with Messi.
Right? Or with Iniesta…or with me! In other words, if there's a player
who's being compared with someone making a mark on the first team, and if it's someone who's a captain,
I mean, it turned out that I didn't understand a thing. I wanted to go slowly, play in the matches
that Van Gaal gave me the chance to play in, but I found myself in the middle of a tide that I didn't understand.
All that made a strong mark on me. And I'm grateful to have always been associated with Pep,
and Pep always helped me out with everything. I mean, there was no going against Pep,
I'm eternally grateful to him. He's always helped me, he's always been there, he's always had advice to give,
and now as a coach, as a coach he's given me a special weight in the group,
and I've only felt that way with Luis Aragonés.
Óscar: Yeah, see now we're getting into that whole thing, where you feel a little,
a little like "But why are they making comparisons, why are they criticizing me, I can't do anything."
It was a learning experience.
Álex: He knew what he wanted and to spend his career at Barça, however, maybe he wasn't developed enough,
and that obviously affects you.
Emili Ricart (FCB physical therapist): They're uncomfortable situations to deal with the years he's spent in elite football.
Aside from his physical fitness he has a mental fitness to deal with
all this that seems easy but really isn't. So you have to work out the details,
and he has them all.
Xavi: I felt very loved, I'm very lucky, I got a family that's worth everything
that's how it is. Things are how they are.
There are people who don't have this family unit, who don't have this base, and it's easy to get distracted.
Girls, clubs, living alone. I was controlled by my dad and my mom as well.
But I had a dad who's lived through all of that,
he's had that experience, who's been in First, Second, Third Division,
who knows what it's like to take care of himself and be a professional and that was fundamental for me.
And he's the first one to tell me "Hey, there's a match tomorrow, careful with what you do today."
Or "At ten, careful, you have to eat, the time, resting,"
he drilled all that into me.
Joaquim: "The day that he goes out”
Xavi: Yeah, with girls, yeah, everything.
My mom's also into the whole footballing thing. She's a very knowledgeable person and very intuitive.
And she knows how easily I can get distracted, you know?
And she anticipates that. And with [Dad's] experience on a football level, I mean, it's ideal.
Iniesta: The people who surround you while growing up is basic,
and I think in that sense Xavi has that.
Naval: With his father bringing him down, his mother coming down to watch some of the matches,
his siblings always interested in what was going on, that comforts him and gives him a greater sense of self security.
Puyol: He has a balanced home life
having people around you who can keep your feet on the ground is fundamental.
Txemi Terás (reporter): I think that this integration of the player
and his family life with the team and his career is,
I think, is one of the keys to his success.
Reporter: Okay. Listen. Raise your hand. Votes in favor of going to Milan.
Xavi: Raise it!
Joaquim: Hey, what? OH.
Reporter: Votes in favor of going to Milan! Ariadna didn't want him to?
Xavi & Ariadna: No, no.
Reporter: Xavi no and the mother no. So there's a tie. So it wasn't obvious.
Xavi: No, Ariadna and I have more personality.
Reporter: You and your mother
Xavi: Nooo! It's my mother who has the most!
Óscar: That was when there were no euros, so there were all these zeros tacked onto numbers…
Joaquim: The situation was: we're not talking about economics. The economics were crazy.
We'll leave that to the side. In other words, it was a club that really wanted to take a chance on him,
we were at home”
We were talking about the Pep issue, who was in front of him.
We didn't have a player who was in front, he had a symbol,
and it would have been so hard to get ahead of that.
And then you have a club who wants you, and like what I said about this offer, I asked,
"Let's see, I'm not just interested in the economic option,
it's about Xavi's athletic chances."
So with Galliani, the first thing I did, was take some paper, he took a paper and says to me
"Listen, do you think we're going to take a player and pay him 850 million pesetas [approx. 5 million €] to pay
the buy out clause, and four years at 250 million net pesetas [approx. 1.5 million €] per season
including housing, maids and plane tickets,
when Xavi was earning 40 million brute pesetas [approx. 241,000 €]?"
He has the ability to go to Italy, to play, to be a starter, to go as a star, as a star on an athletic level,
and on an economic level 40 million brute pesetas was 20% in that moment. And he said no.
Xavi: No, honestly, it didn't fit.
The economic issue, the athletic issue, the situation here at Barça which was very complicated,
how Pep was doing, how the club was doing,
there was this feeling that the team was complete and it was going to last another four years.
Which it did. Then I was here in the background…
Joaquim: He took out a paper.
Xavi: And my mom, and my mom became very very . . ."
Maria Mercé: I thought that now that everything was going well and straight that there needed to be pressure.
Xavi: And I didn't feel it, I mean, I don't do things if I don't feel them.
That's how I am. I mean, I have to, I cant, I can't do something
you know, I get nervous, or agitated. To go to Italy, I would have gone with Álex,
Álex was single at the time, and the two of us were going to Italy.
Maria Mercé Creus: We trusted him. However, there are two boys there by themselves,
I don't know, it was a lot to overcome.