New York City FC have dismissed claims that Barcelona superstar Xavi Hernandez is set to join the club in the summer on a free transfer.Xavi was widely expected to leave the Catalan club last summer, but he agreed a one-year extension to stay.
This has not been a great decision for the 35 year-old, as he has been featuring only rarely in Luis Enrique’s team. Compared with the last few seasons,Xavi has made only 23 appearances in all competitions. It is becoming clear that Luis Enrique favours the young midfielders like Sergio Busquets, as they represent the future of the club.
Xavi has been an incredible part of Barcelona since joining the club as a 11-year-old. He has been instrumental in the club going through the most successful spell in their history. At the time of Pep Guardiola’s appointment in 2008,Xavi was at the peak of his career. Guardiola utilised the midfielder’s passing ability and vision to form a team that went on to dominate world football. Even though the team was thought to be built around Lionel Messi, it was run by the brilliance ofXavi. Rumours have been going around thatXavi would be joining the likes of Frank Lampard and David Villa at New York City FC. This move may be in time for the 2016 MLS season.
“I don’t know where that came from. No [there’s] nothing done.We’re exploring many options for our third Designated Player. We want to see how the team starts playing and base that decision about what best fits team.He’s a fantastic player, no doubt about it. We were in discussions last year, but we’re certainly going to keep the door open to many options. It will be for soccer reasons, and we’ll have a better picture of that when we start playing,” said NYCFC sporting director Claudio Reyna.