By: Sphamandla Blose

The 35-year-old Barcelona centre back, Carlos Puyol, has announced that he will be leaving the team at the end of the season.

Puyol called upon an urgent press conference on Tuesday, where he broke the news about his decision. The decision came after suffering from injuries that he cannot handle anymore.

“The reason for this conference is to inform you that I will be leaving FC Barcelona at the end of this season, I am tired of many injury problems and operation,” said Puyol in Madrid, Spain.

The club supported his decision as they posted on their Twitter account @FCBarcelona wishing the Spaniard farewell in advance, and thanking him for good leadership.

He added that “the club and I decided that we not going to renew my contract.  To recover from my knee injury was not easy as they said it would be, so I cannot perform anymore as I want to.”

He has been at Camp Nou for 30 years now, having lifted 21 trophies. He has appeared in more than 550 official games of the club and has led the team as captain for more than a decade.

His experience and leadership qualities have productively inspired top players whom have been looking up to him, naming the few are the lives of, Xavi and David Eniesta and Lionel Messi.

Puyol’s career started as goalkeeper, but because of the injury in his shoulder his went for being a striker. Then in 1995 when he joined Barca and became a defensive midfielder, two years late he was selected for B-team then he played right back.

Barcelona’s Carlos Puyol struggling with his knee injury that made him to leave football for a while to recover. Picture by Barcelona.com

In 2002 amongst other terrific players, he was awarded for being “best European right back” by UEFA.

As for now he is keen to give his best to the club within the remaining 3 months, and his not yet sure of where he will be going or what he will be doing after leaving.

“It not as if I’m leaving today I still have three months of play for the club till the end of the season, and I don’t know what I will do after that but I just first need to rest then we will see afterwards,” Puyol told the press.