Chelsea Legend Gianfranco Zola Has High Praise for Barcelona Coach and Club Legend Xavi Hernandez

• Gianfranco Zola is excited about the upcoming Champions League game between Barcelona and Inter Milan
• Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola has heaped high praise upon Xavi Hernandez, another legendary player
• Xavi Hernandez played over 800 games as a player and has successfully transitioned into a manager

Legends recognise other legends.

Chelsea legend Gianfranco Zola definitely knows another legend when he sees one and is willing to acknowledge them.

As reported by Barca Universal, Zola is an admirer of Barcelona’s Xavi and recently praised the Spaniard.

Speaking ahead of Barcelona’s Champions League clash against Inter Milan, Zola added that he loved Xavi as a player and now as a coach as well.

“It will be a great match. Inter is a great team that needs to do well again, and Barcelona has a young team that is growing. And then there is Xavi. I loved him as a player, and now I love him as a coach too.”

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Football

Both Xavi and Zola enjoyed legendary careers before transitioning into management.

As noted by Transfermarkt, Zola played 671 games as a player, scoring 202 goals during that time. Most of those games were for Chelsea, where he played 306 games.

On the other hand, Xavi has played 882 in his career, scoring 108 goals in the process. 767 of those games were as a Barcelona player.

Following his retirement, Zola went into management and served as Chelsea’s assistant manager for a period of time.

Xavi also went into management and is currently in charge of the Barcelona team. His Barcelona side are currently joint leaders of La Liga, alongside bitter rivals, Real Madrid.

Barcelona coach Xavi sets a new La Liga record, surpassing Zinedine Zidane's Real Madrid milestone

Sports Brief earlier reported that Barcelona’s coach Xavi has entered the La Liga record books.

The Spanish manager set a new record courtesy of Barcelona’s 1-0 win over Real Mallorca.

As noted by Barca Blaugranes, Xavi has now gone 18 away games in La Liga without suffering a single defeat. Xavi replaced Ronald Koeman in November last year and has overseen 13 wins and five draws.