“Players like Messi and Xavi are always hungry,” Adama Traore told the Daily Mail in 2020.

“Whatever the game or the competition – even if it is table-tennis – they want to win. We used to play two-touch football games after training and they would always be desperate to win. It taught you about life as well as football.

“You look at Messi, everything he has won, he is spoken about every day in the media, but he is still hungry. Most of the time, some players don’t have that quality. They win something and then they relax. Not everyone has the hunger, and maybe that is why these players are at the top,” the player concluded.

Did Adama know that he would reunite with Xavi one day? We doubted it but it actually happened – and the 26-year-old looks exactly like a player who’s always hungry on the pitch.