200 Caps for Xavi Lleonart
By Sabbie Heesh
Earlier this month, Xavi Lleonart reached 200 international caps for Spain in the FIH Pro League. It’s a huge achievement for any player, let alone a 30-year-old.
Xavi Lleonart is a Spanish hockey player who made his international senior debut for the Red Sticks in 2009, at the Europeans in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Since his early introduction to international hockey, he’s been to three World Cups, two Olympic Games and six European Championships. He also won his first medal (a silver) for Spain in 2019 at the EuroHockey Championships in Belgium.
The #17 from Terrassa, Xavi has played hockey from a young age. Both his parents were members of the local hockey club. Xavi came through the junior ranks of CD Terrassa and played in the first team up until 2012, when he joined Real Club de Polo. He would go on to help Real Club de Polo achieve three Spanish league titles in 2013, 2014 and 2015.
For the 2017/18 season, in an effort to improve his game even further, Xavi played for Dutch side HC Bloemendaal. The striker was instrumental that season, helping Bloemendaal to win the EuroHockey League title before returning to Spain to compete for Real Club de Polo. In a recent interview with FIH, Xavi spoke of this achievement being a very proud moment for him, as he knew he wouldn’t get many opportunities to play in this competition.
Xavi is currently still playing his club hockey for Real Club de Polo in Spain and has a busy six months ahead with his international side as they continue their journey to the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
We’re incredibly proud to have supported Xavi for the majority of his 200 Caps, and we can’t wait to continue this partnership into the future.
We caught up with Xavi and asked him about his recent achievement:
"It’s an honour to reach 200 games for Spain. It is always nice to achieve this kind of milestone and see how close you can get to the Spanish legendary players! 200 is an important number that shows a long career dedicated to international hockey, but for me what’s really important is that this number reflects all the experiences that I’m living in and outside the field and that’s something I’ll never forget. 12 years after my debut I am lucky to still be competing and I still have motivation to improve. It is hard to perform at the highest level during such a long period of time, however I hope to do so for a few more games! It’s been a crazy ride but it doesn’t stop here.. I’m really looking forward to Tokyo’21"
