Barcelona's starting XI when Lionel Messi made his debut: Where are they now?

Shreyas
Lionel Messi
Lionel Messi

Centre Backs- Carles Puyol and Oleguer Presas

Carles Puyol
Carles Puyol

Carles Puyol, the one-club man was the defensive wall for Barcelona during his stay at the club. He can certainly be called a Barcelona legend. A product of the club's youth system, Puyol worked his way up the ranks into the first-team and played 593 matches for the club and scored 18 goals and won 20 titles including 6 La Liga Titles and 3 Champions League Titles. He also made 100 international appearances for Spain and scored 3 goals. He retired in 2014 at the age of 36 and was appointed as the assistant of Barcelona's Director of Football Andoni Zubizarreta. He resigned after his boss was fired and is enjoying his personal life now.


Oleguer Presas

Oleguer Presas
Oleguer Presas

Oleguer Presas partnered Carles Puyol at the heart of the Barca defense. The Spanish defender spent most of his career with Barcelona and made a total of 167 appearances with the senior team and scored 1 goal. He moved to Dutch club Ajax in 2008 and played 57 games scoring 2 goals before being released by the club. Presas was actively involved in politics and majored in economics from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He was a supporter of the Catalan nationalist movement and also took part in the Dutch protest against squatting during his tenure at Ajax.

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Edited by Kingshuk Kusari
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