Former Barcelona midfielder Xavi Hernandez continues to dazzle in the midfield despite his age factor but the Spaniard continues to be a reference point for other midfielders in the world football.
Tuesday wasn't a good night for Al-Sadd with the Qatari club slipping to defeat in the first leg of their Asian Champions League semi-final against Persepolis of the Islamic Republic of Iran, however, Xavi did have something to celebrate as he marked his 100th match with the club.
Over the course of this century of appearances, the former Barcelona star has contributed a staggeringly impressive 65 assists and 22 goals, with the latter something he wasn't especially known for at the Camp Nou.
According to reports from Asia, the former La Masia graduate has become the first Spanish footballer to ever reach 100 matches with an Arabic team.
In the same game, the Spaniard also matched Zanetti's record of 1,114 matches played. The midfield maestro played a crucial role in Barcelona’s period of dominance around the turn of the decade and was the fulcrum of Pep Guardiola’s all-conquering team. He won an incredible 25 major trophies with the Catalan club before bowing out at the end of a treble-winning season in 2015.
The first 61 of those appearances came for Barcelona B before he made the step up to Barcelona’s first team, for whom he played 767 matches. He made 57 appearances for Spain at various youth levels and played 133 matches for the national team. Since moving east he has also made 95 appearances for Qatari side Al Sadd. Two more appearances for them, and he will take Zanetti’s crown.
If he is to become the player with the outright most appearances of all time, including goalkeepers, he will have to 277 games. Peter Shilton currently holds that record with a quite incredible 1,390 appearances to his name, spanning over a 30-year career.
Xavi has never relied on his pace, but even for him, it would probably be too much to ask to continue playing for that long. He’s already 38. But it is an incredible record nonetheless, and few players are more deserving of holding it.

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