Barcelona coach Xavi has hailed Sergio Busquets as the best defensive midfielder in the Catalan club's history and believes his former team-mate's exclusion from lists of Ballon d'Or nominees over the years were a 'huge injustice'.
Busquets announced this week that he will be leaving Barcelona this summer after 15 seasons with the first team and 18 years at the club overall.
The midfielder, who will be 35 in July, has received widespread praise following the announcement and Xavi spoke about his former team-mate in a press conference to preview Sunday's derby against Espanyol in LaLiga.
"He is the best pivot, deep midfielder, whatever you want to call it, that I have seen with my eyes," Xavi said on Saturday.
"It always seemed a huge injustice to me that he was never among the nominees for the Ballon d'Or. There is a lot of injustice in football and that was one of them.
"He is perhaps the most intelligent midfielder I played with. He has been a 10 out of 10 in every department and is the best pivot in Barça's history."
Busquets will captain Barcelona in Sunday's derby at Espanyol and a win at the RCDE Stadium will see the Blaugrana clinch the league title with four rounds of the competition still left to play.
Whenever it does arrive, it will be Busquets' 32nd trophy as a Barcelona player.
"Very excited about winning LaLiga," Xavi said. "It would represent an important step. The club is in reconstruction, but winning a league and a Supercopa [this season], that would be important for me and for the club."
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