Sixteen years after making his Champions League debut the man who defined his football by saying ‘That’s what I do: I look for spaces. All day’ is set to make a record 143rd appearance

“When I was a kid I used to watch him on the television. Playing alongside him today was a pleasure.” Saturday evening at the Camp Nou and the Barcelona midfielder Sergi Roberto is talking about team-mate Xavi Hernández. It is no exaggeration. When Xavi made his debut in the Champions League against Manchester United in September 1998, Sergi Roberto was six. Tonight in Paris both men will probably begin on the bench. If Xavi does get on, it will be his 143rd appearance in the competition, taking him one ahead of Raúl.

From Old Trafford to the Parc de Princes, Xavi will have played more Champions League games (not including qualifiers) than anyone else in history. He will be a substitute tonight and he was a substitute back then, coming on in the 67th minute. It was 3-2 to United; three minutes later Barcelona got the equaliser with a Luis Enrique penalty. Luis Enrique is now Xavi’s manager. That night, Louis Van Gaal was his manager. And although Van Gaal’s time in Catalonia is not always looked back upon with the fondness that he, certainly, thinks it deserves, the Dutchman is proud of his legacy. Xavi is central to that.

Xavi defines himself as a “romantic”. Even he admits that he watches too much football: any game at any level in any league. Talk to him and it doesn’t take long for that to come through. He’ll talk Barcelona and Madrid but he’ll talk Portsmouth and Oviedo too. Matt LeTissier once joked that he was thinking of getting a t-shirt made up with a slogan on the front that said: “Xavi’s idol.” And Xavi’s eyes light up when he is asked about Paul Scholes, against whom he played that opening night in September ‘98,

To listen to him is to listen to a man entirely committed to a philosophy, a very specific way of understanding the game: pass, pass, pass. “That’s what I do: I look for spaces. All day,” Xavi said. Dani Alves once referred to him as “playing in the future”: the run did not make the pass, the pass made the run. It was the way that Xavi saw the game – “if not, what are you playing for?”

At times, that has provoked rejection from those who see football differently: Xavi is like the leader of a sect, they complain, refusing to admit other ways of playing. Xavi would disagree; everyone can play as they wish, he would reply. But his way is not going to change. He has swum against the tide too and that single-mindedness, that clarity, has carried him: here is a man who admits to having felt under threat of extinction but who ultimately has outlived them all.

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He has out-achieved them all, too. At 34, he is still here and he has won everything. The European Championships in 2008, the European Cup in 2009, the World Cup in 2010, the European Cup in 2011, the European Championships in 2012. Every year for five years he won the most significant trophy in world football. But he did not just win them; he was not a fellow traveller. He led. He was an ideologue. He played and made others play.

He has been the embodiment of his teams, teams that defined a generation. The Spain coach Vicente Del Bosque wrote after Xavi had retired from the selección: “A team plays like its central midfielder and he was the representative of Spain. He marked our style.” Xavi was not the captain but the fact that Del Bosque wrote a column in El País to mark his passing (and passing is the word), was eloquent in itself. “Xavi leaves a void,” Del Bosque wrote. “but more importantly, he leaves a legacy.”

Del Bosque admitted that Xavi did not bow out the right way. At Maracanã, the ultimate venue for the romantic, he sat on the bench and watched Spain getting knocked out of the World Cup. When the final whistle blew against Australia a few days later, probably the most significant footballer in the history of the Spanish national team headed straight down the tunnel in silence and did not look back. It was over.

It appeared to be over for Barcelona too. Xavi listened to offers from abroad. It was time to move on. The offer that attracted most came from New York, but they would not begin until the spring. Xavi spoke to the president, sporting director and manager at Camp Nou. Luis Enrique, building a new team with Ivan Rakitic signed to play where Xavi always did, was clear: “If you stay, fantastic, but if you don’t play don’t moan to me.”

Xavi stayed, for the time being at least. Now another record is unexpectedly within touching distance. On Saturday evening he started for the first time this season and Barcelona won 6-0. The debate has not yet exploded, but it is lying there latent. Should he still be leading this team? And if not, let’s at least enjoy the last waltz. One of the goals was classic Xavi, classic Barcelona: Xavi’s diagonal ball, Dani Alves’s first time cross and Leo Messi’s finish. Just like old times.