'The best midfielder Barcelona ever had' Messi, Iniesta and Co pay tribute to Xavi after landmark 700th game

By JOHN DRAYTON

Published: 10:19 EST, 18 January 2014 | Updated: 10:37 EST, 18 January 2014

To celebrate Xavi's landmark 700 games at Barcelona, the club has brought some of his teammates together to pay homage in a video set to a montage of some of the mercurial playmaker's best moments.

They begin with a fresh faced Xavi scoring his debut goal for the Nou Camp club and continue through his career towards a sublime lob that he netted in El Clasico some 13 years later.

As the flagrant exercise in backslapping unfolds, the likes of Andres Iniesta, Carles Puyol and Lionel Messi wax lyrical about their teammate and close friend.

Simply the best: Xavi has played an incredible 700 goals for Barcelona

Simply the best: the Barcelona midfielder celebrates winning the Champions League in Rome

Peer group: Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta raise a toast after the 2010 Ballon d'Or awards

Iniesta, the second half of football's most famous midfield double act, refers to his partner as a 'footballing reference' and describes him as some sort of footballing clairvoyant, saying he is 'privileged because he's always ahead of the play, ahead of what's happening.'

Mop-haired captain Puyol is equally effusive with his praise, saying Xavi is 'one of the best in the world, a key player' without even a hint of realisation that he is stating the bleeding obvious.

Carles Puyol

Lionel Messi

Sergio Busquets

Role model: Xavi has been described as Barcelona's best ever player

Next up, the world's greatest ever player (TM) Messi comments on how 'locura' (crazy) it is for Xavi to have reached 700 games and remarks 'he sees passes only he sees' while revealing it was an honour to share the 2010 Ballon d'Or with the player he refers to as 'Maki'.

Even goalkeeper Victor Valdes and Sergio Busquests get in on the act, commenting that Xavi is the 'brains of the team... he never loses the ball' before describing him as 'the best midfielder Barcelona ever had'.

While he might not be quite the same player he was a few years ago, Puyol brings things to a clse by encouraging Xavi to carry on playing, saying, 'you can get to 1000. That's a nice number'.

Past and future? Barcelona's Xavi Hernandez (L) and Marc Bartra arrive for a training session

Training day: (R-L) Cesc Fabregas, Carles Pujol, Montoya and Tello attend the session at Joan Gamper Sports City in Barcelona

Another fine Messi: The Argentine forward has returned to training after a lengthy lay-off

Slalom run: Iniesta practices his dribbling skills and Barcelona prepare to do battle in la Liga