Xavier Hernández Creus (শাবি এর্নান্দেস), commonly known as Xavi Hernández or simply Xavi, is a Spanish professional football manager and former player who most recently managed La Liga club Barcelona. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time, Xavi was renowned for his exceptional passing, vision, and positioning. He spent most of his playing career at Barcelona. He is one of the few players to make over 1,000 professional career appearances.

Xavi joined La Masia, the Barcelona youth academy, at age 11 and made his first-team debut against Mallorca in August 1998, age 18. For Barcelona, he played 767 official matches, a former club record—now held by Lionel Messi—and scored 85 goals. With the initial management guidance by Pep Guardiola and using the tiki-taka football philosophy, Xavi was part of a widely lauded midfield combination trio with Andrés Iniesta and Sergio Busquets; from 2008 to 2015 the trio together were instrumental in Barcelona's exceptional on-field successes in 7 seasons, winning five La Liga titles, three Copa del Rey titles and three UEFA Champions League titles, including two continental trebles (all three titles simultaneously) in 2008–09 and 2014–15. Xavi was the first player in the club's history to play 150 European and FIFA Club World Cup matches combined. In 2015, he left Barcelona for Al Sadd, where he won four trophies before retiring in 2019.

Xavi is widely regarded as one of the best midfielders of all time and he had the ability to find and exploit spaces as a deep-lying playmaker. As he said, "That's what I do: look for spaces. All day. I'm always looking." He would receive the ball and then pass it onwards, with his coach Pep Guardiola putting it: "I get the ball, I give the ball, I get the ball, I give the ball." A composed and technically skilled player with a slender physique and a low centre of gravity, these characteristics compensated for his lack of pace or physicality. Xavi's signature move when in possession involved him performing a 360 degree turn, a feint known as la pelopina, that allowed him to move away from the opposing player, retain possession, and gave him space and time to think about his next pass. In his youth, he had played as a centre-back. While primarily a central midfielder with Barcelona, he often played as an advanced midfielder with Spain.

When describing his man-management philosophy, Xavi explained, "The matter of managing a dressing room is almost more important than the tactical matter. At the end of the day we become half coaches, half psychologists. Being an elite footballer made more empathetic to the players who don't play as much and I also know what the growth of a footballer feels like, and who needs a more loving approach. This gives me a sense of control over the dressing room." Xavi cites about his coaching influences in an interview revealing as follows: "Having a lot of coaches in my career made me take a little bit from all of them: from Van Gaal, from Rijkaard, from Guardiola, from Luis Enrique, from Iñaki Sáez, from Luis Aragonés. I got my masters in man-management from Aragonés and my masters in tactics from Guardiola."

Xavi has a sponsorship deal with German sportswear and equipment supplier Adidas and has appeared in Adidas commercials alongside Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Robin van Persie. Xavi has worn Adidas Predator boots.

In November 2014, Xavi appeared in FIFA's "11 against Ebola" campaign with a selection of top football players from around the world, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Gareth Bale and Didier Drogba. Under the slogan "Together, we can beat Ebola", FIFA's campaign was done in conjunction with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and health experts, with the players holding up 11 messages to raise awareness of the disease and ways to combat it.

Since July 2013, Xavi has been married to Núria Cunillera. They have a daughter, Asia, born in 2016, a son, Dan, born in 2018.