FC Barcelona and Xavi are set to face Paris Saint Germain in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League, and this tie between the two clubs will bring a lot of memories back for the Catalan club’s fans. For instance, Barcelona got one of their most memorable victories in the Champions League, the remontada, against the French team in 2017.
Furthermore, one of the most successful Barcelona managers of recent times, Luis Enrique, and the winger Ousmane Dembele will both return to their former clubs for this tie.
Xavi himself was once a player playing under Luis Enrique at FC Barcelona but has taken over the reins himself at the club now. And as Mundo Deportivo has noted, the current Barcelona coach has recently overtaken Enrique in one managerial aspect as well.
Between 2014 and 2017, Luis Enrique gave 15 youth team players at Barcelona the chance to make their first team debuts. Xavi has improved on this number as 16 youth team players have made their debuts under him, with Pau Cubarsi and Hector Fort the latest to enter this list.
This season, Xavi has given Fermin Lopez, Marc Guiu, Pau Cubarsi, and Hector Fort their debuts, while Inaki Pena, Héctor Bellerín, Chadi Riad, Marc Casado, Aleix Garrido, Angel Alarcon, and Lamine Yamal made their debuts last during the last season.
Ilias Akhomach, Ferran Jutgla, Alvaro Sanz, Estanis Pedrola, and Mika Marmol made their debut in Xavi’s first year.
Seven of the fifteen players who made their debuts under Luis Enrique did so in the first year of his appointment, including; Munir, Sandro, Samper, Ie, Masip, Halilovic, and Gumbau. In the second year, Kaptoum, Aitor, and Kamara made their debuts, and Alena, Cardona, Nili, Borja Lopez, and Alex Carbonell did so in the following year.
But it is Pep Guardiola who holds the record for giving most youngsters (22) their debut, and it was Tito Vilanova who put in a line-up full of academy-grown players in November 2012 against Levante, i.e., Valdes, Jordi Alba, Puyol, Pique, Montoya, Cesc Fabregas, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Messi and Pedro.
