by john@staustell » Fri May 23, 2014 11:02 am
May not be this year at City, but not clear yet:
Xavi Hernandez is very clear about where he wants to play next year. So much so that he has rejected all the offers that have arrived in the last few months. Some just just as tempting – above all economically – as that which Ferran Soriano offered him. The exBarca vice-President, who maintains a very good relationship with the player, offered him the possibility of heading up the new City project in Major League Soccer, IE the US League.
City have bought the franchise to be able to enter this league, aiming to open new markets in the US. Their base will be New York and the name New York City. Soriano, who personally met Xavi in Barcelona, showed him an inspiring project with rich resources which will enable him to live and work in the most cosmopolitan city in the world, where he would also be able to learn other aspects of the coaching side of football.
Soriano offered him a 3 year contract, which means he will end his link to NYC in 2017 age 37. The right moment to finally hang up his boots and widen his professional horizons, always within football.
Xavi appreciated the offer and the great interest shown by Soriano that he should lead the flagship profect of City in the US, but he expalined that at least for the next season his intention is to stay at Barca, as he wants to end his stay there on a happy note, with titles etc.
This doesn’t mean to say he has rejected the offer but that he has postponed it for at least a year, when he will be 35 and consider his footballing career with Barca over.
And Xavi, who’s contract ends in June 2016, is clear he will leave the club when he can no longer play an important role , which means he doesn;t discount that this could be his last year at barca.
From here it depends on the meeting with the new coach, Luis Enrique, to know his intentions fisrt hand. Xavi wants to continue for another year as he believes he still has a lot to offer, although he realises that the years are passing and young players are challenging strongly, though this doesn;t diminish his effort to challenge for a place in the side.
Also he knows that his duties as first captain oblige him to be the coach’s extension in the dressing room, a function that he’s already carried out for several years, with Puyol being long-absent because of injury, also as a guide to the young players.
It’s certain Xavi is excited by the new project which started with the presentation of L Enrique last weds. The coach wasn’t particularly effusive when asked about the future of Xavi, refering to a future meeting to see how things go. But the player was satisfied and trusted that the future meeting will clarify his future.
Up to now he has no intention to quit Barca but to work to keep his place, to help to maintain the level of excellence they have demonstrated in the last few years.
It’s evident that Xavi also expects some some form of communication of confidence from someone with whom he shared a dressing room for more than 5 years in a period especially difficult for Barca, with more misery than success.
It will be in this meeting that attitudes are clarified, routes defined in which everything points to Xavi being able to carry on as an important man both for veterans and for the youngest.
“I may be drunk, Miss, but in the morning I will be sober and you will still be ugly.”
