He was born in La Pabla de Segura, Catalonia. A true Catalan. He started training as a youth player at the Pabla de Segura team. Then he came to La Masia. From the La Masia C and B teams, he reached the Barcelona senior team in 1999. The rest is history. That's enough about Puyol.

Carl Puyol. He was born in 1978 and started playing as a goalkeeper when he first played for the Pabla de Segura youth team. However, he injured his shoulder in training. The shoulder injury is not so bad for other positions, but it is not good for the goalkeeper who has to dive left and right all the time. So he gave up the goalkeeper position.

The author once had a famous joke about Puyol. That was in 2013, when I was working for a newspaper, a colleague mistakenly wrote in a review after a match that Barcelona striker Puyol had killed himself with a headbutt while he was asleep, and that was published in the newspaper. I received a lot of criticism from readers.

The reason I said this is because the striker Puyol was not really wrong. After Puyol gave up the goalkeeper position, he played as a striker. If he really worked there, it would be pretty cool to see him. With his curly hair and suddenly adding a sword and shield to his hand, he would really match the striker's style and appearance of a legendary hero from Roman history.

His parents didn't really believe in his dream of becoming a footballer. So he was often told to study hard. When he arrived at La Masia in 1995, his position was unstable again. He had to play in the central defensive position again. But two years later, he started playing for Barcelona B, playing at right-back. Things changed a lot.

In 1998, Barcelona decided to sell him to Malaga. The transfer was already accepted. At the time, he was only 20 years old and was playing behind De Boer and Michael Ruiz. However, Puyol, a Catalan from Barcelona, ​​refused to join Malaga. Seeing that his academy teammate Xavi was already starting in the first team, he strongly believed that he could do the same.

In this era, Louis van Gaal, who was very popular but not as recognized as he might have been, was the one who gave the most important players a place. He was the one who gave the likes of Patrick Kluivert and Van der Sar a chance at Ajax, and the one who gave the likes of Xavi and Iniesta a chance at Barcelona. At Manchester United, he also gave many young players, including Rashford, a chance to play.

It was Louis van Gaal who brought Puyol to the first team. He came on in the 2-0 away win over Valladolid. He was then moved up again. This time, he would play as a central defender. At 5ft 10, he was actually a small defender in Europe. But his skill set made up for that.

It is worth noting that in 2003, when Barcelona were struggling financially and were trying to sell players, Puyol was linked with a move to Manchester United. However, the transfer did not go through. The truth is that at that time, people like Fabregas and others did not exist, so the Catalan refused to leave the Catalan club, although he did not fully develop. At the end of the 2003–04 season, Puyol became Barcelona's captain, following the retirement of Luis Enrique.

He is a player who can be aggressive when needed, has great judgment and is a good team player. He is versatile and has a lot of energy, making him one of the best captains in the world. Ronaldinho, who chases down an opponent while trying to fight him, and Pique, who throws a matchstick at the referee while the opposing fans are arguing with him, shows his great influence, making it hard to forget that he is only 5ft 10in tall.

He has won 6 La Liga titles, 2 Copa del Reys, 3 Champions Leagues, 2 Club World Cups, 1 World Cup and 1 Euro, making him a must-have in any list of the best defenders. Although he has retired, his legacy will live on forever.

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