Xavi once 'genuinely thought' about joining Manchester United as things weren't going well for him as a youngster at Barcelona.
United take on Barcelona in what looks set to be a fascinating Europa League tie on Thursday as manager Xavi comes up against the club he twice beat in Champions League finals but once considered signing for.
Of course, the legendary midfielder never did arrive at Old Trafford and instead went on to become one of the game's greats at the Camp Nou and with the Spanish national team, winning every possible trophy for both. But before he became the Xavi we know today, he initially struggled to replace Pep Guardiola.
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As a teenager, Xavi was tasked with filling the hole the iconic captain had left behind and struggled with the pressure. Things were so rough he nearly left for United.
"There was a long time when I genuinely thought about accepting United's offer. I needed a change of scenery and things were not going well for me at Barcelona," he told Graham Hunter in "Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team In the World," as detailed by ESPN.
"I have always felt a real attachment to English football and Manchester United would be 'my club' there. For a long chunk of my career, when it looked to people like I was Pep Guardiola's successor in midfield, I was made to feel, by some, like an outsider, like a bad guy for taking over from the legendary captain.
"We are not good at handling change here [at Barca]. I hated all that debate about 'me and Pep,' and Louis van Gaal [then-Barcelona manager] wasn't particularly tactful to put an 18-year-old kid through it. What eventually made the difference is that I'm as stubborn as a mule: I thought about moving to United, but I dug my heels in. I said to myself 'I need to prove myself here!'"
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