Xavi: I’m a footballing romantic

Xavi talks to fifa.com in an interview and reveals that he’s a “footballing romantic just like Cruyff.”  Here are the other parts of the interview I found to be interesting, especially the part where Xavi talks about Iker.  A Spanish version can be found here.  Xavi also gave an interview to AS, which you can read here.

This just gives me an excuse to post an old, old picture of Xavi and Iker from the U-20 World Cup, as well as an old, old commercial they did together!

You were part of the Spain side which won the 1999 edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup in Nigeria. What do you remember of that success on African soil?
We won that World Cup by beating Japan 4-0 in the final. Iker Casillas and Carlos Marchena were also in that team and here we are, back in Africa, once again. In all honesty it’s quite a nice coincidence.

A lot of the Spanish players go back a long way, but how does the squad handle issues such as club rivalries between the Real Madrid and Barcelona contingents? Is friendship an important part of this squad?
I think that Spanish football fans can identify with national-team players because we’re a group of very normal, very hard-working people who love the game. It doesn’t matter if a player is from Madrid or from Barcelona. We’re all playing for the same country and we’re a crop of players that gives their very best for this sport and puts everything else to one side. We simply love football and whatever club team we play for, here we all pull on the same shirt.

We’ve got a great friendship going in the dressing room. I think it’s very important to have a good atmosphere within the squad and Iker, the captain, is often the first to try and foster that. He loves a joke and he’s a very humble and very normal guy. He likes to get the squad together and for us to do things together. It’s wonderful having him as captain, a real privilege.