The Legend Who Sacrificed His Own Body For His Club

Nicknames are like badges of honor for a footballer, and of course, the most honorable footballer of all has to be one of many names: the caveman, the shark, the bull, the wall, the gladiator, the lionheart, the captain of captains.

But no matter what they called Carles Puyol, what they meant to say was that he was the bravest man in the sport and an absolutely relentless defender. While most players these days get all worked up over the smallest hit to their faces, worried they’re going to lose out on a modeling gig or a multimillion-dollar ad campaign, Puyol did not care. As Franco Baresi, another of the all-time greatest, once said: “Puyol would put his head where other players wouldn’t dare to put their feet.” He meant that literally. We’re talking about the kind of guy who saw Roberto Carlos lining up for a shot, and no matter how many legends about his power Puyol had heard, he cleared the ball off the goal line with his face. It’s no wonder that among the 36 injuries Puyol suffered throughout his career, you can find a fractured eye socket, a broken nose, and a broken cheekbone.

Puyol was a selfless leader, one who never thought twice about putting his body on the line so his teammates didn’t have to. As he said it himself: “The players around me, they are the superstars. I don’t have Romário’s technique, Overmar’s pace or Kluivert’s strength. But I work harder than the others. I’m like the student who isn’t the smartest, but works twice as hard and comes out on top in the end.” Those aren’t empty words; he lived by them since he was a child. The average Barcelona star gets put into La Masia at the age of 10, and they grow up with a personalized coach and diet, every tool they could possibly ever need, being told they’re wonderkids, that one day they’ll become superstars. But Puyol’s life was nothing like that.

Up to the age of 17, he was just some kid playing for a minuscule club in the 3rd division of his regional league. He had tried playing on goal, as a right back, winger, and striker; he was good everywhere but nothing seemed to be the perfect fit. And even if everyone at the club could tell he was a cut above, the one time a Barcelona scout happened to come by, he literally left at halftime, disappointed with the quality of the players available. Shortly after, a chance to go on trial at Zaragoza came, but he refused. Puyol had been hopelessly loyal since he was a child. His family even recalls a time when he shocked everyone by failing a school year on purpose so he could stay behind with his best friend who was going to flunk regardless. It was Barcelona or nothing. Puyol would likely prefer to end up working in a factory than having to put on another club’s shirt.

And it was only with two years of academy football left that Barcelona invited him to train at their academy, for one day. There were no promises, he knew most likely he’d never step foot there again, and he admitted that he was preparing for that. But that’s where his father came in. The man was an absolute workaholic; just the thought of his son turning out to be a quitter made him sick to his stomach, so that day he told him: “If they send you back home because there were other players better than you, that isn’t a problem. But if they send you back because someone else tried harder than you, you’re no longer welcome in this house.” At the end of the day, even if there were more talented kids, they just couldn’t tell a boy who had worked so hard all day to go home and never come back. So instead, they kept telling him to come back tomorrow, over and over again, and about 30 days later, they caved in and let him join the academy for good.

However, this was just the first step. Because if once upon a time, Barcelona was forced to rely on their academy, ever since the Bosman law had been employed by UEFA, they had gone a bit crazy in the transfer market, and by ’97, there was only one academy player in their starting eleven. Meaning that out of the 32 housemates Puyol had at La Masia that same year, only 3 would go on to become standout names at the clubs: Reina, Valdés, and Iniesta. But while the three took very straightforward and quick paths towards the limelight, Puyol wasn’t so lucky. As much as everyone at the club seemed to have endeared themselves to him, it was clear that Puyol was not a stereotypical Barcelona player, never as subtle, never as refined.

After years in the B team, the one-time first-team coach Louis Van Gaal had ever paid him any attention was to mock his appearance, asking him if he “didn’t have enough money to pay for a haircut.” And soon, with the Dutch manager seemingly only interested in buying one Dutch player after the other, he even tried to ship Puyol out to Malaga, but again, the kid dug his heels into the ground and refused to move, believing that if another of his old housemates, Xavi Hernandez had managed to make it into the team, one day so would he. And almost 1500 days after leaving the academy, with Puyol now 22 years old and still playing as a right back, Michael Reiziger got injured and once Van Gaal was forced to give Puyol his debut, He never let go.

Less than a year later, with Barcelona’s captain, Luis Figo having left for Real Madrid, everyone in Catalunya wanted his head on a plate. So once the two clubs met for the first time since, they knew that if Figo scored, all hell would break loose, and the one tasked with stopping him was, of course, Puyol. And for 90 minutes, he stayed within inches of him, breathing down his neck. As one newspaper put it, “Even as Puyol went against one of the best in the planet, it felt like an equal fight. One he dominated, without ever succumbing to the dark arts.” And by the end, not only had he managed to protect Barcelona’s honor, but he added his usual bit of class, escorting Figo off the pitch as the fans desperately tried to assault him.