Xavi set for 100th cap

Barce-lona star Xavi Hernandez is set to win his 100th cap for Spain when the world champions resume their 2012 European Championship qualifying campaign on Friday looking to stay perfect.

Xavi, widely regarded as one of the world’s best midfielders, will become only the second Spanish outfield player to reach a century of appearances, after striker Raul Gonzalez.

With a winner’s medal from Euro 2008 in his cabinet alongside one from last year’s World Cup, and having won every major honor in the club game with a star-studded Barcelona team, the 31-year-old Xavi has had an incredible career that is showing no sign of slowing up.

‘During the World Cup, I realized I was close (to 100) and, if the coach wanted, it would happen,’ Xavi said. ‘I didn’t ever consider playing 100 games (for Spain) until very recently. And it is very exciting.’

Spain is one of four countries, along with Germany, Norway and the Netherlands, to have a 100 percent record so far in qualifying and next faces a home match against the Czech Republic in Granada in Group I.

Heavy defeats in friendlies to Portugal and Argentina toward the end of 2010 suggested the glory years for Spain might be on the wane, but a 1-0 victory over Colombia put the team back on track.

And Xavi is still the heartbeat and passing maestro of a side filled with players from his club and whose style mirrors that exhibited by the Catalan giants. But how long can he go on?

‘I don’t know, 100 more and I stop?’ he told El Pais newspaper. ‘Seriously, while they want me they can count on me. For the moment, I am thinking about the Euros, but maybe I will make it to Brazil (for the World Cup in 2014). That wouldn’t be bad, would it?’

Xavi’s Spain teammates are just happy to be on the same pitch as him.

‘An incredible player, among the best Spanish players of all time,’ striker Fernando Llorente said. ‘He is achieving everything in the world of football—for Barcelona and the national team, he is winning everything and it is amazing to see him play all these years at this level.’