Departing Barcelona head coach Xavi on Sunday night paid a leading member of his midfield ranks the ultimate compliment.
Xavi, of course, guided Barca into action for the final time yesterday evening.
After being informed of his impending exit earlier in the week, the 44-year-old oversaw the Blaugrana’s season finale, in a La Liga meeting with Sevilla.
When all was said and done, Barcelona emerged on the right side of a 2-1 result, sending Xavi out on a high.
Proving himself match-winner en route to as much, meanwhile, was youngster Fermín López.
In the midst of a rich recent vein of form in front of goal, Fermín was rewarded with his latest start against Sevilla, and took full advantage, courtesy of a fine strike on the hour-mark.
This took the 21-year-old’s goalscoring tally for the campaign to an impressive figure of 11, quite the haul when considering the fact that he was afforded just 14 league starts.
Amid suggestions in the media of late that such exploits could see Fermín afforded a call-up to Spain’s squad for the upcoming European Championships, the subject of his young midfielder’s candidacy for the Germany showpiece was in turn put to the aforementioned Xavi.
And the tactician threw his full backing behind Fermín, in confirming that he would be happy to go to ‘war’ with the starlet:
“Would I take Fermín to the Euros? This is a question for De la Fuente… but I would take Fermín to war.”
Conor Laird | GSFN
