BARCELONA // Barcelona are about to lose not only their most successful player, but their best talker, too. An articulate football addict, Xavi would wave away Barcelona's press officer who was trying to curtail a 20-minute interview because he wanted to speak longer.
Xavi, 35, will feature in his final Barcelona game on Saturday in Berlin as he aims to win his 25th trophy with the club he played for as man and boy. His team will miss him on the pitch and off it where he set the template for what others said.
There are other intelligent speakers in the Barca dressing room including Gerard Pique, but one of the most strident and cerebral voices is Javier Mascherano. The Argentine will never have the status of Xavi. He’s not Catalan, a midfield metronome nor a one-club man who can talk as easily of Catalan politics as Celta Vigo’s reserves, but Mascherano is an engaging character.
Six Barca players faced the media this week but the Argentina international, with 150 appearances for his country, was the most interesting. He analysed context and oxymorons, spoke with confidence and a forthrightness lacking in some of his cliché-ridden teammates.
“It would be reckless to say we’re going to win a third title,” he said of Barca’s bid for the treble when they take on Juventus in the Uefa Champions League final. “We’re against a team with the same situation as us and we’ll prepare as we’ve done for the previous 59 games. It’s a historic tie but we don’t change what brought us here. If we are here it’s because we’ve done things right.”
Mascherano played in 46 of those games, with no goals and just two assists. A midfielder, he has played out of position as a central defender, but he works, providing the platform for Messi and Co.
Asked if his team were invincible with his compatriot Messi, Mascherano said: “Many things depend on him. But this is a collective, a team game. But he has the ability and talent to do what others can’t. Nobody is invincible; it’s an oxymoron in football and life. We’ll try to take care of all the details, we won’t leave anything to chance, but there are many things that can happen which are not under our control.”
Barca have had control this season, with Mascherano an enforcer to add substance to his team’s style. The man known as “The Little Chief” plays in what has been the league’s meanest defence for two decades. The success of the former River Plate, Corinthians, West Ham United and Liverpool player is no surprise to those in Argentina where he’s already a hero and the butt of jokes after being their best player in Brazil last year.
“If we sent Mascherano to negotiate our national debt, he’d come back and we wouldn’t owe any money,” goes one, as well as: “Mascherano would win Masterchef with just a little pasta and butter” or “Mascherano thought up Google’s algorithm on the back of a serviette.”
The 30-year-old midfielder, with five seasons at Camp Nou, will come up against Carlos Tevez, a teammate at international level and formerly by his side at Corinthians and West Ham.
“Carlos’s career is there for everybody to see,” he said. “It’s formidable. He’s one of the best players I’ve shared a field with. He has a winning personality with all the teams he has played for. He has marked an era and when you play against him you have to be very careful. He’s a player who likes to play these types of games and he’s very important for Juve.”
The man responsible for snuffing out Tevez is likely to be his close friend Mascherano, another of the intriguing battles to look forward to in Berlin.
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Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
THE SPECS
Engine: 3-litre V6
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 424hp
Torque: 580 Nm
Price: From Dh399,000
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Pad Man
Dir: R Balki
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Sonam Kapoor, Radhika Apte
Three-and-a-half stars
Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
if you go
Jeff Buckley: From Hallelujah To The Last Goodbye
By Dave Lory with Jim Irvin
Some of Darwish's last words
"They see their tomorrows slipping out of their reach. And though it seems to them that everything outside this reality is heaven, yet they do not want to go to that heaven. They stay, because they are afflicted with hope." - Mahmoud Darwish, to attendees of the Palestine Festival of Literature, 2008
His life in brief: Born in a village near Galilee, he lived in exile for most of his life and started writing poetry after high school. He was arrested several times by Israel for what were deemed to be inciteful poems. Most of his work focused on the love and yearning for his homeland, and he was regarded the Palestinian poet of resistance. Over the course of his life, he published more than 30 poetry collections and books of prose, with his work translated into more than 20 languages. Many of his poems were set to music by Arab composers, most significantly Marcel Khalife. Darwish died on August 9, 2008 after undergoing heart surgery in the United States. He was later buried in Ramallah where a shrine was erected in his honour.
Other workplace saving schemes
- The UAE government announced a retirement savings plan for private and free zone sector employees in 2023.
- Dubai’s savings retirement scheme for foreign employees working in the emirate’s government and public sector came into effect in 2022.
- National Bonds unveiled a Golden Pension Scheme in 2022 to help private-sector foreign employees with their financial planning.
- In April 2021, Hayah Insurance unveiled a workplace savings plan to help UAE employees save for their retirement.
- Lunate, an Abu Dhabi-based investment manager, has launched a fund that will allow UAE private companies to offer employees investment returns on end-of-service benefits.
SERIE A FIXTURES
Friday Sassuolo v Torino (Kick-off 10.45pm UAE)
Saturday Atalanta v Sampdoria (5pm),
Genoa v Inter Milan (8pm),
Lazio v Bologna (10.45pm)
Sunday Cagliari v Crotone (3.30pm)
Benevento v Napoli (6pm)
Parma v Spezia (6pm)
Fiorentina v Udinese (9pm)
Juventus v Hellas Verona (11.45pm)
Monday AC Milan v AS Roma (11.45pm)
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
If you go
The flights
Etihad and Emirates fly direct from the UAE to Chicago from Dh5,215 return including taxes.
The hotels
Recommended hotels include the Intercontinental Chicago Magnificent Mile, located in an iconic skyscraper complete with a 1929 Olympic-size swimming pool from US$299 (Dh1,100) per night including taxes, and the Omni Chicago Hotel, an excellent value downtown address with elegant art deco furnishings and an excellent in-house restaurant. Rooms from US$239 (Dh877) per night including taxes.
De De Pyaar De
Produced: Luv Films, YRF Films
Directed: Akiv Ali
Cast: Ajay Devgn, Tabu, Rakul Preet Singh, Jimmy Sheirgill, Jaaved Jaffrey
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
