Interview Models himself on Barcelona legend

Xavi's influence continues to be felt on the footballing world as his career winds down, with Ilkay Gundogan admitting that the Barcelona icon is his footballing hero.

Now in Qatar with Al Sadd, the 37-year-old's glittering career with the Blaugrana and Spain had a huge impact on the career of the current Manchester City midfielder.

"I adored Xavi, he was my role model and I always used to watch him any time that I could," Gundogan told MARCA. "Truthfully, I don't know if he is still playing anymore.

"But he was a master of the game to watch. The way that he played with [Andres] Iniesta and [Lionel] Messi in that Barcelona side... I enjoyed watching that team and Xavi a lot."

As much as he liked viewing that particular Barcelona side in action, the Germany international did confess that he could have came up against their great rivals if his career had taken a different turn.

"I'm not 100 percent sure but I do think there was serious contact between Real Madrid and Borussia when I was at Dortmund," he revealed.

"I had a contract there and the club didn't want to sell me if they didn't have to. That happened before my final year and then I eventually ended up joining City."

Gundogan also touched on world football's hottest topic at present, that being the record-breaking Paris Saint-Germain move for Neymar, and did confess he was more surprised at the nature of the move than the actual fee involved.

"It is clear that it is an incredible amount. We already had [Paul] Pogba move for 104 million euros, more or less, and now we have double that with the Neymar move," added Gundogan.

"If I'm honest, the thing that surprised me is that he was allowed to leave Barcelona. If they don't need to sell you, normally you won't leave.

"But then he did leave. I can't think of many reasons to leave Barcelona or Real Madrid but he did leave. It meant that he needed new challenges."