many major trophies. Rightly, he’s regarded
as one of their greatest ever players – and
for some time, he’s been regarded as their
future manager, too. The only question has
been when, rather than if.
Upon realising he was no longer capable
of performing regularly at the top level, Xavi
was lured to Qatar in 2015 at the age of 35,
to finish his playing days with Al-Sadd.
“Barça will continue to be great without
me, I’m convinced,” he said after signing off
with his fourth Champions League crown.
Fortunately, Xavi’s management has been
better than his predictions so far. Initially, he
moved into the same Doha house that Raul
had lived in during a former spell at Al-Sadd.
The midfielder also became an ambassador
for the 2022 World Cup and soon (somehow)
won a national lottery, receiving a cheque of
one million Qatari riyals (around £200,000)
at a high-profile presentation ceremony.XAVI
AL-SADD
“My ultimate objective is to coach Barça.
I’m not hiding that.”
Xavi was still three years from the end of
his playing career when FourFourTwo jetted
out to interview him in Qatar in early 2016,
but his ambition was already clear.
During 17 years in the first team at the
Camp Nou, the World Cup winner bagged as
Al-Sadd are perhaps the Liverpool of Qatar,
in that they’ve won the most league titles –
most of them in the 1970s and ’80s – and
also clinched the Asian Champions League
in 2011 before facing Barcelona in the Club
World Cup. In Xavi’s first three seasons in the
Qatar Stars League, they came third, second
and second.
“Tactically it’s not that well developed, but
it’s a professional league – you can’t just
coast through games, because everyone is
well prepared physically and the teams are
evenly matched,” he told FFT.
Xavi had announced his intention to retire
once he reached the end of the 2017-18
season, but changed his mind and signed
a new deal after Al-Sadd qualified for the
closing stages of the 2018 Asian Champions
League. Joined at the club by ex-Atletico
Madrid midfielder Gabi, Xavi captained them
to the semi-finals, then won the 2018-19
Qatari domestic league before finally hanging
up his boots at the age of 39.
Within weeks, Portuguese boss Jesualdo
Ferreira had departed the club, and Xavi was
appointed Al-Sadd’s new head honcho –
having already gained coaching experience
working with the under-23s at Qatar’s Aspire
Academy. He always seemed perfectly
suited to management: a leader on the pitch
renowned for his stable temperament, with
the vision and awareness to dictate matches
on his own terms. Working underneath Pep
Guardiola for four years did him no harm.
“My philosophy as a coach reflects the
style we developed for many years under the
influence of Johan Cruyff and La Masia, and
that has its greatest exponent in the way of
playing football in Barcelona,” he explained.
“I love seeing teams take the initiative on
the field, attack and return to the essence of
what we all loved from our childhood days –
possession football.
“My idea is to prove myself in Qatar, where
there’s not so much pressure. That will set
me up to return to European football and,
yes, hopefully Barcelona. But I’m not readyXAVI HAS BEEn WAITInG
FOR BARÇA’S ELECTIOn,
TO LEARn THE IDEnTITY OF
BARTOMEU’S REPLACEMEnT
Above “This is how
you do it, right Pep?”156 The Managers FourFourTwo.com
n EXT-GEn
MAn AGERS