In futsal, you see whether a player is really talented. You notice the small details in quality, class and tactical understanding.
Interpretation
Futsal reveals a player's true skills and understanding of the game.
This quote by Xavi emphasizes the unique attributes that futsal can highlight in a player's abilities. Unlike traditional football, the smaller playing field and faster pace of futsal require players to exhibit a higher level of technical skill, tactical awareness, and nuanced understanding of the game, thus laying bare the talents that might be overlooked in larger formats.
In practice
In a coaching clinic to highlight the importance of skills development.
In the last 15 to 20 years the best central midfielder that I have seen — the most complete — is Scholes. I have spoken with Xabi Alonso about this many times. Scholes is a spectacular player who has everything. He can play the final pass, he can score, he is strong, he never gets knocked off the ball and he doesn’t give possession away. If he had been Spanish then maybe he would have been valued more.
In football, the result is an impostor. You can do things really, really well but not win. There's something greater than the result, more lasting - a legacy.
In England, footballers are respected more, the game is more noble, there's less cheating. Every Spaniard who goes loves it - and comes back a better player. If I had ever left, it would have been to England.
I spend the entire 90 minutes looking for space on the pitch. I'm always between the opposition's two holding midfielders and thinking, 'The defence is here, so I get the ball and I go there to where the space is.'
Every sound in the gym is so fantastic. The screams of the fans, the whistle of the ref, the teammates calling to each other, the sounds of the ball touching the wooden floor, the sneakers touching the floor, and the sounds of the fight, the muscle and the sweat. Oh, and the last one-when the ball goes through the net. Don't laugh at my sensitivity and romanticism - those sounds really attract me.
I cannot but feel that the one man, above all others, who deserves the eternal thanks of his own race, and all thinking people, for bringing about baseball’s greatest reform, is Jackie Robinson himself…Certainly baseball people should be eternally grateful for the contribution he made to his own people, and to the game.
Sports constantly make demands on the participant for top performance, and they develop integrity, self-reliance and initiative. They teach you a lot about working in groups, without being unduly submerged in the group.
A cricketer's life is a life of splendid freedom, healthy effort, endless variety, and delightful good fellowship.
The only great English midfielder in my career was Paul Scholes. He had elegance in him. Others were pretenders.
When you play against different people from all walks of life you can't do the same thing against every player defensively or offensively. You have to change up the way you go at a player.
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