It was funny to imagine, on Friday night at El Larguero, when they asked me if anyone had ever been bothered by my work and had let me know, inventing the answer: “Xavi.” The idea of not being able to control a joke, a sudden attack of importance that gets out of hand. Suddenly I hear myself say “Xavi” like I can say “Kate Middleton”. I try to find out the reason that would lead me to invent such a lie and I can’t think of any other reason than immolation. No, I haven’t lost my mind that much; although I would like, if necessary, to lose her with such grace.
It hasn’t been so funny to watch the video again in which I say “Xavi” and observe that it is normal to deduce that he wrote to me directly. I would have liked it: it was much worse. If that were the case I would never have said that. Those calls are things that happen three times a week in my profession. A person is offended or happy with something you write, they get your contact and let you know: morreu or conto. It is elegant on their part to communicate it politely and elegant on yours to assume that what one writes has consequences. What was not elegant was what Xavi did when I published in 2018 Xavi technology, an article that ages wonderfully: writing to a couple of colleagues complaining bitterly and having those colleagues transfer their anger to my section head. That he served as head of EL PAÍS and called me to tell me that the article was great and that, on that day, it was also the most read in the newspaper.
That did not seem serious or relevant to me, in fact I never spoke about it in public because complaints like that, with those same methods, exist every day. He neither asked for my dismissal nor did he want the article to be withdrawn. He was a player, another one, angry because he was not treated the way he considered he should be treated. And I forgot about it until this week, after progressing from the Champions League round of 16 at home, Xavi came to the press conference and celebrated the historic victory by rubbing it against Ramon Besa for an article that, paradoxically, Xavi did not read (Barça, defeated against Shaktar, is the jester of Europe) in which Xavi’s Barça was not talked about as much as the Barça of recent years in Europe. That pettiness seemed familiar to me and I remembered, then, what happened six years ago with my article, its indignant messages and its agitated wake-up call.
Xavi’s problems with the media are a product of the unhealthy relationship that the Spanish press has with his national team. The protection of his symbols leads them to believe that they cannot be touched. Xavi was not touched when he was a player and it is natural that he is disconcerted as a coach. The fact that I have Edu Polo, “I now work for the newspapers than what happens in the fields. Hence Polo’s surprise when, when he asked me for the names of the journalists to whom Xavi wrote, I ended up telling him that he didn’t remember me. Of course I remember, Edu. But colleagues are not sold, private conversations are not leaked, companies are not called to complain about someone’s work, journalists are not singled out at press conferences. All that can be done, yes. I already say that it doesn’t matter to me; If I cared I wouldn’t tell it six years later and about another colleague. But it’s better not to.
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