4 Jack Wilshere in action for Arsenal against Barcelona

This interview appears in the current edition of Sport magazine. Download the free iPad app here, and follow on twitter @sportmaguk

“Ten years ago there was a different perspective on this sport. Greece had been the Euro 2004 winners. Teams advocating a more physical approach were Champions League winners. I think it’s a great thing for football that Barcelona and the Spanish national team changed that. There are two different approaches to a game: a speculative one or a more attractive one based on passing and controlling the game. The latter one is my vision of the game.”

So says the 35-year-old pass master Xavi. It’s easy to forget that, despite his success with club and country, he wasn’t always as appreciated as he is now. The midfielder was part of Spain’s Euro 2004 squad. But, even as a Barcelona regular at 24 years old, he didn’t play a minute of that tournament. Spain exited at the group stage.

Fast-forward six years and Spain are lifting the World Cup, having won Euro 2008, while Barcelona are Europe’s most feared club side. Xavi is the heartbeat of both teams, yet he hasn’t forgotten the influence of the manager who gave him his senior debut for Barcelona: Louis van Gaal.

“Back in the 1990s, van Gaal was a very innovative person,” Xavi recalls. “He focused on passing and control – concepts that the managers I had after his departure adopted too. Van Gaal had this philosophy when I was just 17. He likes to make use of the club’s academy players. He makes no distinction, either. Whoever is fit and trains well will play. He’s a very honest man whose valuation among players is phenomenal.”

Xavi does not, however, see everything in football as flowing in a positive direction. When Sport puts it to him that it’s increasingly difficult to do what van Gaal did with Ajax in 1995, and win Europe’s top prize with a team unfancied at the start of the tournament, he keenly agrees.

“It is really difficult to have an outsider like that [win],” he says. “A top club’s squad is pretty much the world’s best. The Premier League’s best clubs are a reflection of this. You barely find more than two or three English-born players in them. Spanish domestic football is less extreme in that aspect – but you can also find plenty of non-Spanish players in the line-ups. That’s why it gets complicated for academy players to make it.”

Masia magic

The success of academy players is understandably important to Xavi. He came through Barcelona’s fabled La Masia youth set-up.

“It’s all about understanding the game,” he says of what he learned there. “A player grown in La Masia is different to any other player because the fundamentals you get go beyond the usual. It takes many years to implant a playing ethos in an academy. Barcelona-grown players have been absorbing this philosophy for the past 15 years. It relies on keeping the ball, finding spaces and outnumbering your opponent in certain areas of the pitch. Pep [Guardiola] has exported that to Bayern Munich, although Bayern’s style is not exactly the same as Barcelona’s because German players have a different background.”

Xavi does not, however, believe clubs do enough to promote academy talent.

“Everything has changed dramatically ever since the Bosman ruling,” he explains. “It’s not sadness that I feel about it, I just wish clubs would advocate academy talent… What is very upsetting is not being rated by your home team.”

Xavi is also a traditionalist when it comes to showing long-term faith with managers. “It’s a very positive thing,” he says when asked about the duration of Arsene Wenger’s tenure at Arsenal.

“There’s no patience at all in football, but there’s at least one club here that has trust in the manager. Arsenal won the past two FA Cups, right? Perhaps long-term thinking is needed to succeed.”

Wilshere’s gifts

Arsenal and Barcelona crossed paths several times during Xavi’s career. He has warm words of praise for Jack Wilshere:

“He played a fantastic game against us [in 2011]. Let’s not forget he was just 20 or 21 years old [Wilshere was 19]… It’s just a shame he got injured so many times over the past two years. If he gets going and a bit of continuity as well, he may make the difference for both Arsenal and the English national team. He is a different kind of English player. Even though he has been nourished in a physical type of football, he is really talented, gifted for passing and he does not give the ball away. He does not seem to be English!”

Xavi is in London to promote TocBall, a device he has worked on developing “to help improve technique, which is the most important attribute in football. What TocBall does is very similar to shooting a football against a wall, with the advantage of not needing a wall to perform your exercises. You can play Tocball in your bedroom or living room while improving your technique. You can be sure if you hit the ball properly, it will return to you nicely.”

Returning the ball nicely is something that Xavi did rather well during his 17-year Barcelona career. Yet even after leaving for Qatar club side Al Sadd in the summer, he still keeps up with European club football.

“Bayern Munich got their summer signings spot-on,” he says. “Douglas Costa is playing spectacularly, both wingers [Arjen] Robben and [Franck] Ribery are terribly dangerous… If they get fit, Bayern is going to rock.”

Of the English clubs in the Champions League, Xavi says: “Manchester City is more equipped than the rest. On the other hand, Chelsea might be a candidate too, in spite of their slow start to the season. Chelsea is always a great competitor when it comes to European stages, regardless of their domestic campaign. Chelsea and Manchester City have opposite styles. Jose Mourinho is more of a defensive manager [than Manuel Pellegrini], but Chelsea knows how to be rock solid. Having said this, I believe Barcelona, Real Madrid and Bayern are one step above English clubs.”

Before adding, with a twinkle in his eye: “Barcelona slightly better than the other two.”

You can take the boy out of Barca, but Barca’s ideals will stay with Xavi for life.