Barcelona had a good week after knocking out Napoli in the Champions League, and returning to the quarter-final stage for the first time since 2020. However post-match, things turned a little sour as Xavi Hernandez used the credit garnered to go after journalist Ramon Besa.
Following the match Xavi called out the coverage of the Blaugrana, noting in particular and article that referred to Barcelona as the ‘fool of Europe’ following their defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk earlier in the season.
Besa would explain that he had corresponded privately with Xavi about the article, and despite the fact that the piece was focused on not just Xavi’s Barcelona, but that which failed under Quique Setien and Ronald Koeman.
🚨 Of the four times Xavi and Simeone have faced each other, the Barcelona coach managed to win all four games. @RogerTorello pic.twitter.com/VC5HNDrINR
— barcacentre (@barcacentre) March 14, 2024
On Friday night, while speaking on Cadena SER, Manuel Jabois revealed that he had also found himself on the wrong end of a Whatsapp from Xavi in 2018.
“It was right after my article about Cristiano Penaldo that I had done against a player from my own team, talking about his feigning of penalties. I said about Xavi that the game was not over until he came out to decide who had deserved to win. It remains very current, no doubt. He sent me some private messages, messages that were very nasty, which I won’t reveal because they were private.”
Besa would go on to note that perhaps the two totems of Barcelona’s recent history, Johan Cruyff and Pep Guardiola, never contacted him regarding articles he had written during his time covering them.
Xavi has clearly felt the weight of the pressure at Barcelona in recent months, and that has been seen in his constant battles with the press. No doubt there is truth in some of what he says, that the coverage can be suffocating, and harsh, but certainly the likes of Jabois and Besa have not fallen into the category of hot-take reactions, nor agendas against Xavi. Sending critical messages to them for doing their jobs certainly seems out of line, and would be gratuitous the other way around.
We’re past the time when sports journalist can write any baseless crap that they think of. Xavi is not wrong for calling them out on it. And this attack on him isn’t going to change things. He’s already resigned after all
In 2018 I received… Then say it in 2018!
Not 6 years later!
And I am not even a Barcelona fan but I find this utterly ridiculous.