Carles Puyol is a central defender who plays for Spanish side Barcelona and Spain. Puyol joined Barcelona in 1995, at the age of 17. In his early years he played all over the field, after starting out as a goalkeeper. He eventually ended up as a defender, now mainly in central defence, but he can also play righ or left back. He made his debut for the first team in 1999, at the age of 21. At the end of the 2003-04 season he was made Barcelona’s captain. Dedicated to Barcelona he has been one long success story and is regarded as one of the world’s best defenders. With Barcelona he has won the Spanish La Liga 4 times, the Spanish Cup once and the UEFA Champions League twice. With the Spanish national team he played a significant role in winning the 2008 UEFA European Championship and the 2010 FIFA World Championship.

Gerard Piqué and his centre-half partner Puyol are two important reasons that Barcelona and Spain have gone from success to success. They both came up through Barcelona’s youth system, the much older Puyol ahead of Piqué. As a 17-year old Piqué headed to England to play for Manchester United. However after only one season he went back to Spain, on a season long loan to Real Zaragoza. After 22 appearances for them he went back to Manchester United for the 2007/08 season. He only played in 9 league games and a couple of Champions League games and at the end of the season he signed a contract to go back to Barcelona.
After returning to Barcelona Piqué has never looked back, winning the historic treble with Barcelona in his first season back. They beat Manchester United in the Champions League final. The following season Piqué again won the Spanish league with Barcelona, before winning the World Championship in South Africa with Spain.

Dani Alves is a right back who plays for Spanish side Barcelona and the Brazilian national team. Alves first arrived in Spain in 2002, on loan to Sevilla from Brazilian side Bahia. Alves went on to hugely impress in the 2003 FIFA World Youth Championship, which Brazil won. His move to Sevilla was made permanent and he went on to win two UEFA Cups with the club. In July 2008 Alves joined Barcelona and in his first season there contributed to them winning the treble. This was followed up the following season by again winning the Spanish La Liga. Alves made his senior debut for the Brazilian national team in 2006. Despite his excellent form for his club sides, Alves has usually been second choice at right back for Brazil, behind the brilliant Maicon. New Brazilian head coach Menezes has given Alves the chance to shine, a chance which he has fully taken in friendly matches against Iran and Ukraine (scoring in both).

Victor Valdés is a goalkeeper who plays for Spanish side Barcelona and the Spanish national team.
Valdés came up through Barcelona’s youth ranks but also spent three years at Tenerife as a teenager.
He made his debut for the first team in the 2002-03 season and became their first choice goalkeeper the following season. Valdés has with Barcelona won 4 Spanish La Liga titles, 1 Spanish Cup and twice the UEFA Champions League. In the Spanish national team Valdés is the 2nd choice goalkeeper behind Real Madrid’s Iker Casillas.

Francesc Fàbregas is a central midfielder who plays for Barcelona and Spain. Fàbregas was born and bred in Barcelona and was coming up through their youth system when Arsenal signed him in 2003. Due to injuries to some of Arsenal’s key players his debut came sooner than expected. He gradually established himself in the starting XI when Patrick Vieira was injured and when Vieira eventually left for Juventus in summer 2005. Despite injuries Fàbregas was given the Arsenal captaincy during the 2008/09 season.
The young spaniard developed into one of the greatest playmakers in English football. He also made considerable impact in the Spanish national team, the current European Champions and World Champions. The Spanish fans wanted to see him play in the Spanish La Liga and Barcelona wanted their prodigy back. After the 2010 FIFA World Cup Arsenal rejected a €35M bid from Barcelona. It was however highly anticipated to be a matter of when, not if, Fàbregas would make his return to the Catalonian super club.

On August 15th 2011 Fàbregas returned to Barcelona, for a fee of €34 million with a further €5 million in variables. He made his debut in the second leg of the Spanish Supercopa against Real Madrid, coming on as a substitute in the 3-2 win. Fàbregas, who turned 24 in May, has signed a five year contract with Barcelona.