THE peculiar thing about the world's two greatest playmakers of the last decade, Andrea Pirlo and Xavi Hernández, is that they have been unloved for so much of their careers.

Pirlo made his Serie A debut at just 16 years of age in 1995 with his local club, Brescia, but once he moved to a bigger club - to Inter Milan in 1998 - he couldn't crack it. Twice Inter loaned him out.

It was only when Pirlo was on his second loan spell - back in Brescia, as it happened - that the old, grizzled Italian coach Carlo Mazzone converted him from a traditional, attacking No.10 into a deeper-lying midfield role, what Italians refer to as the regista. Mazzone had found a key that has been unlocking Italian defences for the last 15 years.

After moving across the city in 2001, Pirlo won a couple of league championships and two Champions League titles with Milan and, of course, put in a man-of-the-match display for Italy in their triumphant 2006 World Cup final against France in Berlin. He said he offered up a prayer on his way to taking Italy's first penalty in the shoot-out, reckoning there was a good chance he would get a positive response "because if God exists there's no way he's French".

More rejection ensued for Pirlo, however, when Milan refused to offer him more than a one-year contract in 2011; Pirlo, who was 32 at the time, thought he deserved three years. There was an impasse so he was made availabel for transfer.

Juventus stepped in for a dance. The grand old lady has already extracted four years (and four straight Serie A titles) out of him, the latest, ironically, under the stewardship of Massimiliano Allegri, the man who discarded him as Milan coach in 2011 because he wanted a more robust midfielder.

Xavi, too, has been unfashionable for much of his career, having broken into Barca's first team as an 18-year-old. Louis van Gaal gave him his Champions League debut - in a competition he has made more appearances than any other player - against Manchester United in the autumn of 1998, a 3-3 draw in which the late equaliser came from a penalty kick by Luis Enrique, Xavi's current manager.

Xavi's talent had long been flagged at Barça. He joined its famous youth academy at La Masia in 1991, but for several years in the senior side as a midfielder he failed to make his mark. It was only when Frank Rijkaard signed Edgar Davids in January 2004 and pushed Xavi further forward (in contrast to the switch made by Pirlo) that Xavi found his niche and became the reference point for both Barca and Spain.

Still, though, there were sceptics in the press. The late conversion of his critics in the media is something that still bristles with Xavi. Two months ago in a press interview in Spain, he complained that, "people only discovered me since Euro 2008" when Spain won the first of two European Championships, sandwiched between a World Cup win. He had been a first-team player for 10 years at Barca by this stage.

"If I leaf through papers from years gone by," he said, "it makes me laugh: they said I was obsolete, that Edgar Davids made me look good, that I only moved the ball from side to side. They called me 'the windscreen wiper'."

Xavi certainly has a unique style. Few players have his bearing. He goes about the pitch, ball at his feet, with his head cocked, upright and swivelling like a periscope, scouting for a player in space to move the ball on to. It seems he never loses possession. Perhaps Alex Ferguson summed it up best when quipping: "I'm sure I saw him give the ball away once."

Pirlo offers his team-mates similar sanctuary. Fans of Juve like to parade around in T-shirts, adorned with his image and the reassurance: "Keep calm and pass it to Pirlo". Both men are unflappable on the pitch, epitomised by Pirlo's collection of Panenka-style penalties scored by him over the years, including the one against England's Joe Hart in Euro 2012.

They exude calm off it, too. Xavi likes to spend his downtime in the Pyrenees picking mushrooms. Pirlo retreats to his vineyard where he produces about 15,000 to 20,000 bottles of wine a year.

They will soon have more time to indulge their hobbies. Xavi will make his last appearance for Barça on Saturday in the Champions League final. He is heading to Qatar for two seasons. Pirlo has hinted that if Juventus were to win - in the city where he won the World Cup with Italy - he would consider it a perfect way to conclude his top-flight playing career, going out, as Enrique said in reference to Xavi, through la puerta grande, the big door.