25 Years Ago: When Barcelona’s legendary captain Carles Puyol made his Blaugrana debut
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Carles Puyol is one of the biggest legends in Barcelona history, as well as one of the best centre-backs of his generation. Today marks a quarter of a century since Carles Puyol played the first of his 663 games for FC Barcelona. On 17 June 1997, the L’Hospitalet stadium was the venue for the Copa Catalunya final against CE Europa.
Bobby Robson sent the defender on in the 75th minute as a replacement for Molist, moments after the lower league side had taken an unexpected lead. Despite players like Laurent Blanc, Guillermo Amor and Emmanuel Amunike being in the side, Barça lost that game 3-1, but it will always be remembered for being the first senior appearance for Carles Puyol.
It wasn’t Carles Puyol’s official debut as he had to wait for 2 years for his first competitive game
Louis Van Gaal would not give him his first competitive game against Valladolid until two years later, in 1999.Puyol would go on to play for the club for 15 years, appearing in 593 competitive games and 70 friendlies and becoming one of the club’s most iconic players of all time.
Puyol was a tough, honest, no-nonsense player and a fantastic ambassador for the club both on and off the field. He was a fantastic captain, completely committed.
Carles Puyol lead the Barcelona team to a historic treble being a stalwart during the whole campaign
It wasn’t always swift sailing for Carlos Puyol at Barcelona with the Blaugrana captain not winning a single piece of silverware till the age of 27. That all change when they dethroned Real Madrid and Valencia’s dominance to win their first La Liga title in 2004-05 since 1999 and that started an unprecedented trophy laden decade for the Catalan club.
He captained the team to three Champions League titles, although he only lifted the trophy in Paris 2006 and Rome 2009. After their third victory, this time at Wembley, he handed the honour to Éric Abidal, in recognition of the Frenchman’s spectacular recovery from a tumour in time to appear in that game. That’s the kind of honourable person that Puyol has always been.
Puyol won 21 different titles at the only club he ever played for Barça, and will always be regarded as one of the most popular players ever to don the blaugrana jersey, and one of the greatest defenders ever to grace the game.
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Sujeeth Shetty
(766 Articles Published)