- The Liverpool legend has named the two Barcelona icons among the best five players he played against.
- Paolo Maldini, John Terry and ex-Barca forward Thierry Henry have also made Carragher’s list.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher has named Barcelona greats Xavi Hernandez and Lionel Messi among his top five career opponents.
“Love him. I spoke to him for the book, we’re actually in contact now – we text each other… well I text him! Get that on social media trending!” the Englishman told talkSPORT of Xavi.
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“I think he’s the greatest midfielder I can think of. If you said to me pick your best midfielder I’d go for Xavi.
“He was player of the tournament in World Cups and European Championship when Spain dominated, just like what Barcelona did domestically.
“I’ve interviewed him once for the paper and it was a big thing for me. And I got him hold of him for my new book where Xavi is talking about Barcelona beating Manchester United at Wembley in the Champions League final.
“It was a great honour for me to speak with him as he’s the number one in terms of midfielders.”
Then the Merseyside went on to name the current Barca captain ‘an absolute god’.
“He’s got to be in there. I played against him when he was a young lad and he certainly wasn’t the Messi of the Pep era,” Carragher said of Messi.
“But we [Liverpool] played against the Barcelona team, who were reigning European champions, in 2006 and Messi was on the right wing, Ronaldinho was on the left wing and Samuel Eto’o was upfront. It was some front three!
“We beat them at the Camp Nou 2-1 and we lost at home 1-0 – Eidur Gudjohnsen scored – but we went through on the away goal.
“He’s just an absolute god and there’s no way I couldn’t put him in my top five.”
Paolo Maldini, John Terry and Thierry Henry have also made Carragher’s list. What’s more, 42-year-old claimed that the ex-Barca forward was ‘the best player in the world’ for a couple of seasons during his time at Arsenal.
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