Former Barcelona star Xavi lauded natural leader Iker Casillas after the goalkeeper s departure from Real Madrid.
Casillas ended a 25-year stay with the La Liga giants as his move to Primeira Liga outfit Porto was confirmed.
The 162-time Spain international and Xavi shared plenty of battles, as well as successes with the national team.
I have to publicly recognise that I appreciate Iker a lot, and I sincerely think that we have a strong friendship, Xavi wrote in Marca.
There s a lot of years together, we had passed by a lot of moments, good and bad ones, and these are the ones which stick people together. And he s a very lovable guy.
He has been always a joker, joyful, sincerely and really competitive guy.
Xavi added: He s affectionate and plenty of energy. He cheers you up, he jokes on you, but always being respectful. He s always being logical. He s very practical, he doesn t turn around stuff for too long.
World Cup winners together in 2010, Xavi now at Al-Sadd in Qatar said Casillas had helped calm the tensions between fierce rivals Real and Barca.
For example, when the Madrid-Barcelona issue arises, and we saw it could go worse, he called me and told me, Pelopo he always called me that man, we have to fix it. We d suffered a lot to be where we are, just to ruin it all because of this .
I think that if Iker hadn t mediated in the moment he did, I really don t know how the stuff would end. He s someone who participates, who contributes to the group. His leadership isn t a forced one, it s natural.
