Carles Puyol reveals how he was humiliated in training by Lionel Messi
Former Barcelona defender Carles Puyol recounted an incident during a Barcelona training session when he said he was “humiliated” by none other than Lionel Messi. The defender who is now retired admitted that he thought of using physical force in order to bring down Messi during a one-on-one drill. But the then- Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola warned him against the idea.
“It was a short match, man on man. I thought to myself: ‘I’ll see if I can stop him’,” he said. “It was humiliating. Pep said, ‘don’t injure him, Carles. Stop the training session if you don’t want something to happen to him [referring to an injury].’ Puyol said while speaking to La Vanguardia.
Puyol said that none of his tactics to stop Messi worked and that the Argentine simply managed to get past him. It is worth noting here that during his playing days, Puyol was considered one of the best centre-backs around.
“I tried everything, but he always got past me at his own pace,” Puyol said.
The former Barca captain also said in the interview that the current Barcelona team will be remembered as Messi’s Barca because of his influence on the team. He also claimed that the league title which Barcelona won will be known as Messi's league title.
"He's head and shoulders above anyone I've seen. He's extraterrestrial. He's better now than he was four years ago because he reads the game better. He's unstoppable," Puyol said.
Transition not easy
Puyol also said that it is not easy to start a new life after retiring and that staying away from the pitch is extremely hard: "The transition isn't easy at all. If only I could play a bit of sport it would be more bearable, but the change has been so extreme and really hard".
The 37-year-old also says that he regrets not going undergoing surgery earlier in his career: "I might have been able to continue playing. I wanted to play until I was 40. I thought about playing on for free, but I couldn't. Now I feel liberated".
The Catalan told the decision to retire came when he felt when could no long perform at the top level.
"I made the decision. I thought about what the team needed and when I realised I could no longer perform at the same level, I decided to have the operation because my knee was really feeling it," he said.