Ribery & Ronaldo deserve Ballon d'Or - Xavi

Barcelona star Xavi has admitted that Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo and Bayern Munich winger Franck Ribery both deserve the Ballon d'Or.

Blaugrana attacker Lionel Messi has dominated the award in recent years and though the Spaniard is adamant that the 26-year-old is still the best player in the world, he feels his team-mate could lose out this year.

"Ribery and Cristiano deserve to win the Ballon d'Or, but there's no doubt that the best player now, and of all-time, is Messi. In any case, I don't vote," he told reporters.

Barca were beaten 7-0 over two legs by Bayern in last season's Champions League semi-finals and Xavi is eager for revenge against the Bavarians.

"I hope that if we play each other again we can be more competitive than last year. Obviously we recognise that they are the favourites."

Spain defend their World Cup crown in Brazil next summer and the veteran midfielder has ackowledged that the hosts will provide stiff opposition.

"We’re looking forward to it. We know it will be difficult and especially against the hosts Brazil, who are big rivals, as we saw in the Confederations Cup. We'll try to regain our title."

Xavi: Barcelona miss Guardiola at times

Barcelona midfielder Xavi admits that the Catalan giants miss certain aspects of former head coach Pep Guardiola's football philosophy.

Guardiola enjoyed a trophy-laden four years at Camp Nou, during which his side secured three La Liga titles and two Champions League triumphs.

The 42-year-old departed the Spanish champions in 2012, taking a short sabbatical before joining Bundesliga holders Bayern Munich in the close-season.

And Xavi hailed the "extraordinary project" engineered by Guardiola during his time in Spain.

"Pep made his job in Barcelona. We are so proud he was our manager," he said. "(We had) four years when we won plenty of trophies. He led an extraordinary project until he decided to leave for a gap year and nowadays he is doing a brilliant job in Bayern Munich.

"Obviously, we miss things from him, as (we do) the other managers who left the club. We have another coach, we had [Tito] Vilanova last year and Tata [Gerardo] Martino this season.

"Each person has a different way to work. Guardiola had his way, Vilanova too and Martino as well. All of them are good managers and we were lucky with Guardiola because we made history."