Top 5 Barcelona players to have graduated from La Masia

#4 Carles Puyol

Captain Fantastic: Carles Puyol

In a day and age where players switch loyalties for fame and money, Carles Puyol belongs to an elite list of players who have stayed loyal to the club they started off with. Although Puyol did have the chance to leave Barcelona, twice. The first in 1998 when Malaga CF came calling and Barcelona even agreed terms. However, it was Puyol’s refusal to leave his boyhood club that scuppered the deal.

The second time, a far more lucrative offer, was offered by Sir Alex Ferguson’s Manchester United in 2003, Barcelona then immersed in a huge financial crisis, were more than willing to sell their prized asset, however a true one-club man that Puyol is, he refused the transfer to the Red Devils and decided to stick with the Blaugrana. The rest is history.

Puyol went on to become the club captain after Luis Enrique's retirement in 2004. He was the undisputed leader of a team that dominated European football for half a decade. Known as a tenacious and a no-nonsense central defender, it is perhaps hard to imagine that Puyol started his career at La Masia as a goalkeeper. However, after injury problems pertaining to his shoulder, he switched to a centre-forward, then to a defensive midfielder and finally settled down in Barcelona’s B team as a right-back. In hindsight, the fans will be glad he switched to the position he is best known for, centre-back, which he made his own for a number of years.

Not one of the most technically gifted players that La Masia has produced, but he more than made up for it with his tenacity and reading of the game. He said in 2010,” I did not have Romario's technique, Overmars's pace or Kluivert's strength. But I worked harder than the others. I was like the student who is not as clever, but revises for his exams and does OK in the end.”