Recently, former Real Madrid scout Manuel Romero was interviewed by Marca, during which he recalled that he almost signed Xavi for Real Madrid. Romero is a Real Madrid scout in Catalonia, he has served the White Army for more than 20 years, and Romero is also the most feared person in Barcelona, because over the years he has brought a lot of football talent from the Catalan region to the capital Madrid.
On 10 January 1999, Barca took on Camp Nou to meet Athletic Bilbao, and barca coach Louis van Gaal decided to use Guardiola as the starting point and put Xavi on the bench. Although Harvey was only 18 years old at the time, he had already shown his talent as a commander in several consecutive games. Van Gaal's decision made Harvey's father, Joaquin, angry, and Joaquin said to Romero next to him: "They don't know what kind of a player Harvey is, it looks like they only have Guardiola in their eyes." Tomorrow, if you want, we'll go to Madrid. ”
Romero then said to Paco Gimenez (a close confidant of Real Madrid boss Del Bosque) who was also on the scene: "Damn, did you hear me? Hurry up and tell the club, Joaquin looked at me with a serious look in his eyes. Gimenez replied, "What do you want?" Want us to get into a strife? In the end, Harvey came on with half an hour left in that game.
Harvey is from Thalassa, a city located in the eastern part of catalonia, 28 km from Barcelona. In The Harvey family, Barça is their faith, and Harvey aspires to succeed at camp Nou. Romero recalled: "Indeed, we were able to sign Harvey in the first place. "Time goes a little further." When Xavi was young, I was at Sabadell and I would love to sign him. His father is a partner at Thalassa And our two teams are in the same class. Harvey is the youngest of their team, but he's already playing for the Youth A team and he's the best! It seems that he knows football very well. I talked to his father, and we talked about how to get this kid to run back and forth between Sabadell and Thalassa. However, the people of Barcelona came, and after that, of course, he went to Barcelona, which was the place of his dreams. ”
"There used to be no internet, and Harvey's father would call me every Sunday and tell me about Harvey. Harvey is really a good seedling, he will analyze all the opponents including the people he wants to keep an eye on, how to foul and open corners... It's incredible! Obviously, I want to bring him to Real Madrid, just as I once wanted to bring him to Sabadell. ”
In the end, the Madridist Romero sent his blessings to Xavi, but said no to Barca, where he only admired Xavi. "Real Madrid is my life, I only have Real Madrid on my daily schedule. If there is a meeting or something on the day, I will first see if Real Madrid has a game. ”
(Kikoku)
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