Xavier "Xavi" Torres Buigues (born 21 November 1986) is a Spanish professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who plays as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. Formed at

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

, he went on to amass

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men's ...

totals of 156 games and six goals over eight seasons, with that club,

Málaga Málaga (, ) is a municipality of Spain, capital of the Province of Málaga, in the autonomous community of Andalusia. With a population of 578,460 in 2020, it is the second-most populous city in Andalusia after Seville and the sixth most pop ...

, Levante,

Getafe Getafe () is a municipality and a city in Spain belonging to the Community of Madrid. , it has a population of 180,747, the region's sixth most populated municipality. Getafe is located 13 km south of Madrid's city centre, within a flat ar ...

, Betis and

Sporting de Gijón Real Sporting de Gijón, S.A.D. (), commonly known as Real Sporting, Sporting Gijón, or simply Sporting (although in an international context this can lead to confusion with Sporting Clube de Portugal) is a Spanish football club from Gijón, P ...

Club career

Early years

Born in

Xàbia () or () is a coastal town and municipality in the ''comarca'' of Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, Valencia, Spain, by the Mediterranean Sea. Situated on the side of the Montgó Massif, behind a wide bay and sheltered between two rocky ...

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

, Torres spent his entire youth career at

Villarreal CF Villarreal Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Vila-real Club de Futbol, S.A.D.), usually abbreviated to Villarreal CF or simply Villarreal, is a professional football club based in Villarreal, in the Castellón province of eastern Spain, th ...

. He made his professional debut at another club in the region,

Alicante CF Alicante Club de Fútbol was a Spanish football team based in Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1918, it played its home matches at ''Estadio Alicante CF'', with a 4,000-seat capacity. History ''Alicante Club de Fútbol'', under t ...

, in the 2006–07 edition of

Segunda División B Segunda División B ( en, Second Division B) was the third tier of the Spanish football league system containing 102 teams divided into five groups, until it was replaced by the new structure in 2021. It was administered by the Royal Spanish Foot ...

Barcelona

Torres signed for

FC Barcelona Futbol Club Barcelona (), commonly referred to as Barcelona and colloquially known as Barça (), is a professional football club based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain, that competes in La Liga, the top flight of Spanish football. Founded ...

in July 2007 (after Villarreal had rebought him from Alicante), spending the vast majority of his two-year spell with the reserve team, which he helped to return to the third division in his debut campaign as the

Catalans Catalans (Catalan language, Catalan, French language, French and Occitan language, Occitan: ''catalans''; es, catalanes, Italian language, Italian: ''catalani'', sc, cadelanos) are a Romance languages, Romance ethnic group native to Cataloni ...

were coached by young

Pep Guardiola Josep "Pep" Guardiola Sala (; born 18 January 1971) is a Spanish professional football manager and former player, who is the current manager of club Manchester City. He is considered one of the greatest managers of all time and holds the re ...

. Torres made his

debut on 17 May 2009, appearing for the already crowned champions in a 2–1 away loss against

RCD Mallorca Real Club Deportivo Mallorca, S.A.D. (, ca, Reial Club Deportiu Mallorca , ''Royal Sporting Club Mallorca''), commonly known as Real Mallorca or just Mallorca is a Spanish professional football club based in Palma on the island of Majorca in ...

. After the match, the player said that he was very grateful to Guardiola – promoted to first-team manager the previous summer – for giving him an opportunity to play in the main squad; it would be the first of two appearances.

Málaga

On 12 June 2009,

Málaga CF Málaga Club de Fútbol (, ''Málaga Football Club''), or simply Málaga, is a association football, football club based in Málaga, Andalusia, Spain, that competes in the Segunda División, the second tier of the Spanish football league system, ...

signed Torres on a free transfer for four seasons. He scored his first goal with the

Andalusia Andalusia (, ; es, Andalucía ) is the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomous community in the country. It is officially recognised as a ...

ns on 30 August, closing a 3–0 home victory over

Atlético Madrid Club Atlético de Madrid, Sociedad Anónima Deportiva, S.A.D. (; meaning "Athletic Club of Madrid"), known simply as Atleti in the Spanish-speaking world and commonly referred to at international level as Atlético Madrid, is a Spanish profess ...

in the 89th minute, in the season's opener. Torres made his Málaga debut as a starter on 13 September 2009, in a 1–0 defeat at

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña (), Deportivo or simply Dépor, is a professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia (Spain), Galicia, Spain. They currently p ...

, being replaced by

Victor Obinna Victor Nsofor Obinna (born 25 March 1987) is a Nigerian former professional footballer who played as a striker. Obinna in Igbo, literally means "father's heart". He played for Chievo in Italy's Serie B, having played regularly in Serie A with ...

in the 84th minute. However, he appeared rarely in his first year and, on 7 June 2010, was loaned to recently promoted side

Levante UD Levante Unión Deportiva, S.A.D. (, ca-valencia, Llevant Unió Esportiva ) is a List of football clubs in Spain, Spanish football club in Valencia, in the Valencian Community, namesake autonomous community. Founded on 9 September 1909, Levante ...

. His first competitive match for the latter took place on 28 August, when he played the entire 1–4 home loss against

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA Euro ...

Levante

In early December 2010, Torres was linked with a potential move to Everton, but nothing came of it. He rarely missed a game for Levante – being the second-most used player in the squad – as the

Valencian Valencian () or Valencian language () is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the Carche, El Carche comarca in Región de Murcia, Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance lan ...

team finally retained their top-division status. In July 2011, the move was extended for a further

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and pol ...

. Torres scored his first goal for the ''Granotas'' on 20 November 2011, in a 3–2 away loss to Atlético Madrid. He ended the campaign with five, as they finished sixth and qualified for the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (abbreviated as UEL, or sometimes, UEFA EL), formerly the UEFA Cup, is an annual football club competition organised since 1971 by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European football clubs. It ...

for the first time ever.

Getafe

On 31 May 2012, Levante activated the

€ The euro sign () is the currency sign used for the euro, the official currency of the eurozone and unilaterally adopted by Kosovo and Montenegro. The design was presented to the public by the European Commission on 12 December 1996. It consists ...

300.000 buying option it had on Torres, offering the player a four-year contract which he refused. On 1 August, after lengthy negotiations, he signed a four-year deal with fellow top-flight

Getafe CF Getafe Club de Fútbol (), or simply Getafe, is a professional football club based in Getafe, a city in the Community of Madrid. The team competes in La Liga, the highest tier of the Spanish football system. The club's home stadium (owned and op ...

for a fee of approximately €500,000. Torres started in most of his league appearances for the

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the second-largest city in the European Union (EU), and ...

outskirts club (37 official matches during the season), his first being on 26 August 2012 in the 2–1 home victory over

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid. Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...

where he featured 90 minutes.

Betis

On 7 August 2013, Torres signed for four seasons with

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

. He scored his first competitive goal 22 days later, the last in a 6–0 home rout of

FK Baumit Jablonec FK Jablonec () is a Czech professional football club based in Jablonec nad Nisou. The club has played in the top league of Czech football, Czech First League, since 1994. History Jablonec played its first season of top league football in the 19 ...

in the Europa League playoff round. In December, however, he suffered an

Achilles tendon The Achilles tendon or heel cord, also known as the calcaneal tendon, is a tendon at the back of the lower leg, and is the thickest in the human body. It serves to attach the plantaris, gastrocnemius (calf) and soleus muscles to the calcaneus (h ...

injury in a game against

HNK Rijeka Hrvatski nogometni klub Rijeka ( en, Croatian Football Club Rijeka), commonly referred to as NK Rijeka or simply Rijeka, is a Croatian professional association football, football club from the city of Rijeka. HNK Rijeka compete in Croatia's top ...

in the same competition and was sidelined for the rest of the campaign, which ended with relegation to the second tier.

Later career

Torres terminated his contract with Betis on 15 August 2016, and joined

on a one-year deal shortly after. One year and ten days later, after suffering relegation, the 30-year-old moved abroad for the first time in his career, on a one-year contract at Australian club

Perth Glory FC Perth Glory Football Club is an Australian professional soccer club based in Perth, Western Australia. It competes in the country's premier men's competition, A-League Men, under licence from Australian Professional Leagues. Founded in 199 ...

. On 31 July 2018, Torres returned to Spain and its second division after agreeing to a contract with

Elche CF Elche Club de Fútbol, S.A.D. ( ca-valencia, Elx Club de Futbol, S.A.D.) is a professional football based in Elche, Province of Alicante, in the Valencian Community. Founded in 1923, the club competes in La Liga, holding home matches at ''Estadi ...

. In August 2019, he went back overseas to sign for Al-Arabi SC of the

Kuwaiti Premier League The Kuwait Premier League (), known as STC Premier League due to sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Kuwait football pyramid system. Formed in 1961, Al-Arabi, Qadsia and Kuwait both hold the best record in the competition, having won ...

, under his former Levante manager

Juan Ignacio Martínez Juan Ignacio Martínez Jiménez (; born 23 June 1964), is a Spanish football coach and former player, who played as a left back, and is a current head coach. Playing career Martínez was born in Alicante. After playing youth football for both ...

. On 14 September 2020,

free agent In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign with other clubs or franchises; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is a ...

Torres moved to second-tier

CD Lugo Club Deportivo Lugo is a Spanish football team based in Lugo, in the autonomous community of Galicia. Founded on 8 July 1953, it plays in Segunda División, holding home games at '' Estadio Anxo Carro''. History The new board of directors was o ...

on a one-year deal.

Career statistics

Honours

Barcelona *

: 2008–09 Betis *

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

: 2014–15 Al-Arabi *

Kuwait Emir Cup The Kuwait Amir/Emir Cup ( ar, كأس أمير الكويت) is a Kuwaiti football competition created in 1962. The Emir Cup, is the last football competition held in the Kuwaiti football season. It is considered the most valuable cup. Al Arabi ...

: 2019–20

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Torres, Xavi 1986 births Living people People from Xàbia Spanish men's footballers Footballers from the Province of Alicante Men's association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players Villarreal CF B players Alicante CF footballers FC Barcelona Atlètic players FC Barcelona players Málaga CF players Levante UD footballers Getafe CF footballers Real Betis players Sporting de Gijón players Elche CF players CD Lugo players A-League Men players Perth Glory FC players Kuwait Premier League players Al-Arabi SC (Kuwait) players Spanish expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's soccer players in Australia Expatriate men's footballers in Kuwait Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Australia Spanish expatriate sportspeople in Kuwait