One of the few footballers who have written a book is Barcelona’s new-old player, Oriol Romeu. In December 2021, the then Southampton midfielder published “The Season of My Life” (“La Temporada de mi Vida” the original title in Spanish), a diary of his 2020-21 season. In the book, he reveals the person with bare feelings behind the mask of the footballer, showing the most human, sympathetic side of a professional sportsman.
The Catalan midfielder has developed between the walls of La Masia as a youth player, where he also made a few appearances with the first team before starting a new journey in England. From there comes the connection with his current Barcelona coach Xavi Hernández, an idol, and source of inspiration for the footballer, to whom he dedicates a whole chapter in his book.
The story, reported by Mundo Deportivo, goes back to Romeu’s first training with the Barcelona first team, when he found himself in the middle of a rondo, chasing the ball that was moving very quickly between the likes of Messi, Xavi, Iniesta, and Busquets, with little success. “My feelings at the end of training were a bit frustrating,” Oriol admitted in his book.
But what happened later left a lasting impact on Romeu. In the locker room, Xavi came and began to stretch next to the young Oriol, a moment that changed his approach towards the iconic midfielder forever. “He had always been one of my idols, but the day I met him as a person, he became more of a reference point for me.”
Over the years, Romeu has been always a self-critical professional who sought the way of constant improvement, and it wasn’t far from him to sit down and watch videos of other greats like Iniesta, Zidane, or Pirlo in order to capture the secret of their genius and learn from them, from the people who were immensely successful in their area of expertise.
One day, together with his personal coach, he noticed that he has a level of excessive relaxation in certain moments of the game, which can potentially lead to dangerous ball losses. As usual, he sought an established role model, a player who was always actively focused and made perfect decisions throughout the entirety of the match. And Romeu thought of none other than Xavi himself.
But this time, instead of watching videos of the midfield maestro, Oriol wrote a message to Xavi. He had his number since they’d already texted each other earlier that summer because the now Barcelona manager wanted to bring Romeu to Al-Sadd, however, the author of the book didn’t mention this detail.
Seeking advice, Oriol asked in a long message: “I was looking for a player who was perfect in activation and concentration during the game as a reference, and I thought of you (…) How did you do it? Did you have any rituals?” And he finished with: “If you are busy and can not answer, absolutely nothing happens”.
Xavi’s answer came the following day, due to the time difference between Qatar and Europe. “I already have the ‘highlight’ of the month or even of the year. A message from Xavi about football, addressed to me. Wow!” said Romeu in his book, who also revealed the kind and helpful reply of the legendary midfielder.
In the message Xavi talked about the sense of responsibility and perfectionist approach that motivated him, always putting himself up to individual challenges.
Xavi’s motivating message about “self-demand, the feeling of responsibility and habit of training” kept inspiring Romeu, who expresses how lucky he is to receive advice from a player like the Puppet Master.
Oriol cherishes this message as a highlight, and Xavi’s message to never relax and keep working has surely helped him in his career as he finds himself back at Barcelona, but not as a greenhorn youngster but as a refined, experienced player in the starting XI.
