The only survivors who played with Xavi at Barça

With the goodbye of Piqué, Busquets and Alba, only Ter Stegen and Sergi Roberto have coincided with the coach in the squad

With the German goalkeeper he did it only in one season, 2014/15

Xavi was entrusted with the task that Ronald Koeman could not complete. Which was the one to finish the deep renewal of the template that gave so many successes in the past and start a new winning project with a younger player base with other more veterans but of indisputable quality and still hungry for titles and illusion to be part of FC Barcelona.

At first there were many doubts as to whether Xavi would be capable of managing a squad that still had players who had met him as a player and who, furthermore, some of them were personal friends. When he arrived, the coach already said that for many it was a problem he saw it as an advantage because he knew them and knew how they were and how they thought.

And time has proved him right because Xavi has known how to manage his replacement and most of them are no longer at the club. In fact, There are only two survivors in the current squad who have met the coach on the pitch: Ter Stegen and Sergi Roberto.

Piqué and Busquets, who played with Xavi from 2008 to 2015 and Jordi Alba, who played from 2012 to 2015They have left the club this season. The center-back did so in November when he understood that his usual substitute situation would not change throughout the season and Busquets and Alba waited for the end of the season to put an end to his time at Barça.

The two understood that their cycle had come to an end and that it was the best time for new leadership to appear in the team. Busquets has many options to play alongside Messi at Inter Miami while Alba still doesn’t want to go to a less competitive league.

Ter Stegen only coincided with Xavi for one season, 2014/15, with Luis Enrique as coach. The current Barça coach didn’t play too much and had a more secondary role because the interior players in most games were Iniesta and Rakitic. The German goalkeeper was also not a starter in the League, Claudio Bravo’s competition, and played in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, which was precisely won that year in Berlin.

Sergi Roberto made his debut with the Barça first team in 2010 with Guardiola but until 2012/13 he alternated with the subsidiary. It wasn’t until the season with Gerardo Martino that he became part of the first team for all intents and purposes. The Reus player always had Xavi as one of his references.