Barcelona manager Xavi Hernandez has recalled an incident involving sharing a room with a young Lionel Messi while Barca were touring Japan.
While the specifics of the tour haven’t been mentioned, Xavi could be referring to when the Catalan giants toured Japan in late July 2005. They played out a 1-1 draw against the Yokohama Marinos.
They beat the same team in Japan two years later, but by then, Messi was a major fixture in Barcelona’s starting XI. Speaking in the documentary ‘Messi’, Xavi said:
“Leo was extremely shy, we once shared a room in Japan and he didn’t say a single word, he was that shy. Because I shared a room with him, he trusted me.”
He added:
“We adopted him into the dressing room, we said we have to take things step by step. But I think the big stars like Ronaldinho; they saw that this kid could make them better.”
Messi and Xavi played 399 matches together as teammates, winning four UEFA Champions League titles and seven La Liga seven titles.
In the mid-2000s, Messi gradually grew in importance at the club and became an irreplaceable part of every Barcelona manager’s first-team set-up. While Xavi left the club in the summer of 2015, Messi departed Camp Nou last year to join Paris Saint-Germain (PSG).
He is in the final year of his contract at the Parc des Princes, and a return to Barca has been touted. If he secures a fairytale homecoming to Catalonia, then it could be the first time Xavi gets to manage the Argentine playmaker.
The Spanish tactician became the manager of the club in November 2021 when he replaced Ronald Koeman, and by then, Messi was a PSG player.
Barcelona striker dreaming about playing with Lionel Messi
Robert Lewandowski left Bayern Munich to join Barcelona this summer. The Poland international could not help his team qualify for this season’s UEFA Champions League knockout stages.
Subsequently, many have questioned whether it was the right decision to leave the Allianz Arena for Camp Nou. Nevertheless, he could get to fulfill a ‘dream’ of his that may not have been possible at Bayern.
Speaking in an interview with Marca, Lewandowski stated:
“He [Lionel Messi] knows how to put the ball into the box, between the lines… he’s the best in the world at that. I don’t know what’s going on right now, but for a striker it would be a dream to play with Lionel Messi for sure.”