200 presenze per 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.
Il numero 17 di Terrassa, Xavi, gioca a hockey fin da piccolo. Entrambi i genitori erano membri del club di hockey locale. Xavi è cresciuto nelle giovanili del CD Terrassa e ha giocato in prima squadra fino al 2012, quando è passato al Real Club de Polo. Contribuirà poi a far vincere al Real Club de Polo tre titoli della liga spagnola nel 2013, 2014 e 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 gioca ancora a hockey per il Real Club de Polo in Spagna e avrà sei mesi intensi con la nazionale mentre continua il percorso verso le Olimpiadi di Tokyo.
Siamo estremamente orgogliosi di aver sostenuto Xavi per la maggior parte dei suoi 200 Caps, e non vediamo l’ora di continuare questa collaborazione in futuro.
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"
