First trophy of the Xavi era

Xavi Hernández has won his first major trophy as FC Barcelona coach after the team were clear winners on Sunday in the Spanish Super Cup Final. 

421 days after assuming his new job, Xavi's first piece of silverware comes at the expense of Real Madrid, who were second best in the King Fahd Stadium in Riyadh. It's by no means the first time Xavi has tasted success in this competition. He won it six times in his playing days at the club, along with 26 other major honours. 

Today's win is particularly special considering the way things have been going in the last few years. Since Xavi took his seat in the Barça dugout, there has been a new kind of expectation at Spotify Camp Nou, with the team responding with the kind of football the fans like to see. But what they like to see more than anything else is trophies, and hopefully today's is just the first of many more to come.

But it's not a first for Xavi as manager. This was also the first at Barça for a huge number of members of the squad. It was a new experience for Iñaki Peña, Balde, Bellerín, Christensen, Marcos Alonso, Kounde, Eric García, Kessie, Gavi, Lewandowski, Ferran Torres, Memphis and Raphinha, and first ever major trophy at senior level for some of them. 

And with the team three points clear at the top of the Liga table, there is every reason to believe that there could be another trophy appearing in the club museum before too long... Força Barça. 

Spanish Super Cup no.14

Barça were already the team with the most Super Cup titles, 13, although a Real Madrid win today would have tied the two teams. Instead, Barça move two clear of the all-whites in the all-time table after winning the club's first football title since the Copa del Rey in 2020/21.

For the record, Barça have now been Spanish Super Cup winners in 1983/84, 1991/92, 1992/93, 1994/95, 1996/97, 2005/06, 2006/07, 2009/10, 2010/11, 2011/12, 2013/14, 2016/17, 2018/19 and 2022/23 ... and this was the very first under the new four-team format.