By Benson Petit-Clair
FC Barcelona’s emblematic captain Carles Puyol announced on Tuesday that will be leaving the club at the end of the current Liga campaign. The 35 year old defender is under contract with Barca until 2016 but but has reached an agreement with the club to forgo the final two years of the deal.
“I want to announce that at the end of the season I will no longer be a Barcelona player,” Said Puyol. “There are three months of the season left and I will not give up. I will help the team.”
Coming through the ranks of Barcelona, Puyol made his debut with the Catalan club in October 1999 in the 2-0 victory at Real Valladolid . Since then, He has made 593 appearances for the club, second only to current teammate Xavi.
The veteran defender’s playing career has been plagued by a series of injury. Throughout the course of his career, he has suffered a total of 36 injuries in 15 campaigns with the first team, with eight of them being knee related. He has been limited to just five appearances in La Liga for Barcelona this season.
“After two recent surgeries, it has become harder for me to recover the level that I demand of myself and that I need to be at to play here.”
The defender admitted that his future beyond June 30 remains unclear.
“I don’t know what I will do after June 30,” he said. “But I’m sure that in the summer I will rest. I would like to have a press conference at the end of the season to say a proper goodbye after a total of 19 years at the club.”
At the club level, Puyol won six La Liga titles, three Champions League crowns, two Spanish Cups and two FIFA Club World Cups, all with FC Barcelona. Between 2000 and 2013, 100 appearances for La Roja at the international level. He was a member of teams that won the 2008 Euro, and the 2010 FIFA 2010 World Cup.
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