No Messi without Xavi?

We all know about the amazing season that the Spanish club Barcelona had in 2008 and 2009. They won six trophies and that means that they took all the gold away from their opponents. They entered six competitions and were able to win all six of them, and that marked the end of a world record run. They won the Spanish League- La Liga, Copa Del Rey, UEFA Super Cup, UEFA Champion’s League, Super Copa de Espana and the Club World Cup.

With Barcelona winning everything that they wanted, one little star shined the brightest; and we all know what his name is and most of us will not even forget the amount of entertainment that he provided back then, and even now.

Lionel Messi, a person who came from almost nowhere. No one actually knew him much back then, when Ronaldinho was “eating all the pies” at Barcelona. The Brazilian player gave everyone a “sight to watch.” Just like Ronaldinho for Barcelona, now Lionel Messi is making his way to the top of the World. He has already been crowned the world player of the year back in 2009, and has won a lot of other awards, but is it really true that he steals the spotlight of the others? Is it true that he is just like Cristiano Ronaldo over Wayne Rooney back in Manchester United?

Well, we do know how he is being compared to Diego Maradona all the time. The player himself tried to take over the job of Maradona by acting just like him. Attempting “goal of the century” along with the “hand of god,” everyone thought that Lionel Mess is the one. Even though he has amazing talent at his feet, is he really a one-man army just like Diego Maradona back in his “good old days” in 1986?

To start with, the facts, Spanish side won the FIFA World Cup 2010, which many say that they actually deserved because they have all the top class players. Many on the other side are of the general idea that if Diego Forlan can bring his team to the semi finals and actually give a tough time to the Germans with just “normal” players, then why not Argentina. Everyone is aware of the fact that Argentina became the favourites to win the FIFA World Cup 2010, when they started showing the fans that they had the players to do it. With a disastrous starting to the qualifiers, Argentina still managed to jump up to the 32 teams that qualified for the World Cup.

Argentina were not losing a match, they triumphed over each and every team that they faced but when the headlines read “Argentina vs. Germany, FIFA World Cup final comes early,” and Argentina came head to head with the European giants and had to perform where it really mattered, where was Lionel Messi? Where was Carlos Tevez, Higuain, Di Maria or even Kun Aguero? The South American dreams totally shattered when none of them could live up to the expectations and lost the match with a huge margin of 4. The Germans literally opened their defence in and out and owned the second half, even after a good start to the half by the Argentineans. Thomas Muller, Shweinsteiger, Podolski, Klose! These were the players who showed the world what they were actually made of and that “team chemistry” is more important than “individual skill.”

Argentineans criticized the manager, Diego Maradona, for not taking good defenders with them; well the Argentineans should know that Maradona is an attacker himself and he would only want to score goals and not defend them. It is a common phenomenon that coaches practice what they preach, just like Dunga is a defender and clothed Brazilians with a defensive strategy, which was totally wrong.

Lionel Messi could not really perform in that match because there was no team chemistry. In Barcelona, he performs because he knows how they are going to pass the ball on to him. They actually don’t depend on Messi himself, but Xavi who feeds him with amazing through passes.

If someone has to disagree, then they seriously need to see the Spaniards performing. With Xavi being their centre player, they won the FIFA World Cup 2010 because of him. Xavi is undoubtedly the best centre midfielder of all time. He knows how to pass the ball and when to pass it. He has this amazing talent that not every centre midfielder has, and he actually proved it time and time again that he is “the one” for Spain and Barcelona, both.

Xavi Hernandez, the amazing central midfielder has been an outstanding performer for the Spanish club, Barcelona but has been overshadowed by Lionel Messi’s skills and tricks and dribbling techniques. Just like Wayne Rooney in Manchester United. Ronaldo took away all the glory and over shadowed the number 10 of the club, Wayne Rooney, back when Ronaldo was in Manchester United.

Is Lionel Messi really equally great even without Xavi Hernandez? Well, he is great at dribbling the ball, has amazing skills, but Xavi is the “key player” for the Barcelona side, as he is the one providing him with the through balls along with Dani Alves, Andres Iniesta and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who are also a bit “over shadowed” by the little Argentinean magician.