Gavi shoelaces: Why does Barcelona and Spain star play with boots undone? | OneFootball

Barcelona‘s famed La Masia academy has been responsible for the rearing some of the planet’s finest ever footballers.

In fact, La Masia has been a proverbial production line of obscenely talented stars.

Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez, Pep Guardiola, Andres Iniesta and Carles Puyol are but a few of the superstar names to have emerged from Barcelona’s footballer farm.

Even now, with Barcelona mired in financial difficulty, the academy continues to churn out stars, none of whom have more potential than Gavi.

Gavi remains a teen but he has already grabbed the attention of the global football loving public.

His scintillating debut for Spain was but a sign of things to come and you can be sure he will notch up some remarkable showing in the colours of Barca this season.

So, on the occasion of his 18th birthday, we thought we would celebrate one of the most unique aspects of the man set to take the European stage by storm in the coming years.

His vision? HIs skill and guile? His finishing ability? Nope, we thought we would celebrate the fact that Gavi can do all of that with his shoelaces untied.

The internet is awash with clips of the wunderkind sending defenders hither and thither with alarming ease all while wearing boots that aren’t even done up.

You can see some of those moments, in the clips below:

So why does he do it? Is it an ode to the late great Diego Maradona?

Well, no. The simple fact of the matter, as was explained by Barcelona boss Xavi, is Gavi had trouble tying his laces growing up, so got into the habit of playing with them undone.

Following a hard-fought 1-1 draw with Sevilla in December 2021 in which Gavi played a leading role, Xavi explained:

“Gavi has been playing with his laces untied since he was very young, it’s because he doesn’t know how to tie them well. He doesn’t care and he plays like that.”

The 18-year-old has already made 46 appearances for the famous Catalan club, bagging two goals and six assists in the process.

While those numbers might not necessarily be considered ‘ground-breaking’, there can be no denying that Gavi really does have the world at his feet.

If he can go on to fulfil his frightening potential, then we could be looking at a future legend of the game.