Barça’s X factor

THE boy from Terrassa was just 11 when he turned up at Barcelona’s Masia training school and received his first lesson in what the club expected from him.

“I remember it well,” says Xavi Hernandez. “It was shaking hands. I was a kid from a small town, and I wasn’t used to it. I thought it was a thing that grown-ups did. But Juan Manuel Asensi, who was responsible for youth coaching back then, explained to me that you should shake hands with everyone: team-mates, opponents, the referee, the man in the stores. To start with my fingers were bruised but then I got used to it.”

Tonight in Milan, Xavi can expect to receive a few more bruises, and not to his hands. For he is the player targeted for special treatment by Inter in their bid to reach the Champions League final for the first time. Close down Xavi, believes Jose Mourinho, and you are half way to stopping Barcelona tick.