Javi Hernandez is one of the most outstanding football players on the planet of the last decade. He was the captain and the main think tank of the formidable “Barcelona”, which shone in the European arena, won with it 25 trophies of various calibers. Among other players, Xavi stood out for his extraordinary pass culture, with almost no errors in the passes. His game connection with another Barcelona midfielder, Andres Iniesta, has become the standard of interaction between the players of one team.
High style
The long-standing captain of the Spanish national team is an almost perfect example of a typical Spanish midfielder. Low and agile, Xavi is fluent in the art of passing, giving an incredible 90-95% accuracy per match. Such a football player became indispensable in the team of Josep Guardiola, who built the game based on fast and short passes.
Javi Hernandez acts in the center of the field, coordinating the game of the whole team and being a real think tank. He does not have crazy speed and dribbling, but regularly gives sharp, cutting passes to attacking players who can only do their direct work.
It’s as if a powerful processor is built into the midfielder’s head, he has an unrivaled vision of the field and in a split second is able to make the most correct decision.
The game of “Barcelona” and the Spanish national team during the time of Xavi was based on ball control, a constant oversupply, as a result of which their opponents simply lost strength, trying to intercept the ball. In such conditions, a low midfielder felt great, managing and conducting the game of his partners, almost all combinations passed through him.
Start
Javi Hernandez was born in 1980 in the small Catalan town of Terrace. Despite the low growth, he was highly appreciated by coaches already in childhood for his perfect mastery of the pass technique and methodically moved upwards in the Barcelona system. From 1991 to 1997, he played in the youth teams of the Catalan club, then became a soccer player of Barcelona B.
Xavi regularly played for the double, and from time to time he was attracted to matches for the main team. His debut in Barcelona took place in 1998.
Nevertheless, a turning point in the biography of Javi Hernandez came in the 1999/2000 season. Josep Hardiola, one of the leaders of Barca, was injured, and a talented pupil was called upon to replace his elder comrade. From that moment he began to constantly play at the base, becoming an indispensable part of midfield.
In those years, “Barcelona” was in a real crisis: coaches, players changed, as a result of which there was a decline in results. The club began to lose its unique combinational style of play, which negatively affected the entertainment.
The crisis
At the beginning of the 2000s, European football began to slide into the primitive game of “run-and-run”, speeds increased, and there were more contact martial arts. Under these conditions, the role of creative midfielders who own a jewelry pass and are able to control the game from the central zone of the field has sharply decreased. Long passes, primitive awnings in the penalty area, flanking passages of fast midfielders began to prevail.
Javi, who did not have outstanding physical data, speed and dribbling, was in the shadow of more athletic players, as a result of which the Spanish national team coach infrequently gave him a chance to prove himself on the field. Nevertheless, in Barcelona he was one of the key midfielders, systematically and methodically improving his playmaker skills.
Heyday
Everything began to change after Frank Rajkard became the coach of the Catalan club in 2003. He began serious reforms, replacing a number of age players with young and technical Deco and Ronaldinho. “Barca” was reborn from the ashes and again began to give out the old spectacular game based on dizzying combinations, and here Javi Hernandez became a really main link in tactical formations.
He consolidated his leadership status in the 2004/2005 season, becoming the team's vice captain.
In 2005, he suffered a knee injury, which is why he missed most of the season, but was able to recover for the final match of the 2006 Champions League. True, Rikard did not dare to release Javi on the field, and he watched the victory of his comrades from the bench.
Havinesta phenomenon
The Catalan began to acquire the status of a living legend after coming to the post of coach of Barca Josep Guardiola. He made a real revolution in football, having instilled in his club the famous “tiki-taku” - a game based on total ball control and short passes. The role of Javi Hernandez has increased dramatically, he became a real dispatcher, managing the game team from the center of the field.
By 2008, he had found an indispensable midfield partner in the person of another Catalan pupil - Andrés Iniesta. Equally short and incredibly technical, he made up with him a fantastic bunch that dominated the field in all Barca matches. The percentage of accurate transfers of each of them ranged from 90-95%, the opponents simply could not take the ball from the Catalans.
Understanding each other perfectly, they seemed to be whole and earned the half-joking nickname “Havignest”. It was these footballers who became the cause of the exploits of the Spanish national team, which since 2008 has won three major tournaments in a row. Twice the Spaniards won the European Championships and for the first time in history won the World Cup.
The phenomenal playmaker played his last match for Barcelona in 2015, in the Champions League final. Earlier, he announced his retirement in the national team. Many are wondering where Javi Hernandez is playing now. He left Europe and today acts as the playing coach of the Qatari club Al-Sadd.