How Carles Puyol nearly joined Malaga
In a book on Barcelona titled "Behind Closed Doors", journalist Lluis Lainz reveals defender Carles Puyol was nearly booted out from the club early in his career.
By ESPNSTAR.com staff
Puyol is one of the few players who have completely dedicated their careers to helping their local clubs achieve success.
But during the 1990s, Lainz revealed that Barcelona were nearly on the verge of offloading him to Malaga as he had failed to impress coach Ronald Koeman following his first-team debut.
"Puyol made debut in a friendly match with Sallent. The coach that was to train him in the Juvenil A team was satisfied with his performance. However, [La Masia director] Tort, then the head of the club's youth system, was not pleased with what he saw," wrote Lainz.
"For Koeman, Xavi was destined for greatness. But, not Puyol. He was not of the same calibre.
"[Barca director Serra] Ferrer was negotiating with Malaga to sign the player. He did not believe in him and wanted him out of the club."
Lainz wrote that only the intervention of club president Josep Lluis Nunez allowed Puyol to stay on at the club and the defender has since helped them win five La Liga and three Champions League titles in an illustrious career thus far.
"He turned into a symbol of the club and has become a model for future generations," Lainz added
Current Barcelona president Sandro Rosell was happy with the details provided in the book and lauded Lainz's diligence in uncovering hitherto unknown facets of Barca history. He believes that the club has always been open in its dealings with the fans and the media, helping it to become, as the club slogan goes, "more than a club".
"[Barcelona] is more than a club and always will be," he stated during the presentation of the book.
"Everything about Barça is out there, we're probably the most transparent club in the world.
"[Books like Lainz's] help that to be the case, by recounting what goes on behind closed doors.
"Thank you very much for telling these 113 stories, a number which represents the years since the club was founded.
"I saw that my father [former chief executive Jaume Rosell] is mentioned in one of the chapters, so it has special emotional resonance for me."
Puyol will unfortunately miss the upcoming El Clasico against Real Madrid on Sunday after dislocating an elbow in his side's win over Benfica in the Champions League. He has made 563 appearances in all competitions in 14 seasons with the club.