Barça defender Gerard Piqué took to Facebook to pay tribute to his "guardian angel" Carles Puyol, who has announced that he will leave the Blaugrana at the end of the current season.
35-year-old Puyol still has two years of his contract remaining, but has decided to call time on his glittering career at Camp Nou. He told the media: “I want to announce I will be leaving Barcelona at the end of this season. The club knows and we have agreed on the terms. We will end my contract and cancel the two years I had left.
"After the two last and very aggressive operations I have had I am finding it very hard to get back to the level I want for myself. It is harder than I expected and harder than what I was told by the doctors. So that is why I am taking this decision.
"There are three months of the season left and I won't be giving up."
Known to the fans as 'Tarzan', or 'The Wall', Puyol made 593 appearances for Barcelona and won 100 caps for Spain. He did not completely rule out the idea that he might play elsewhere next season.
"I don't know what I will do after 30 June, but I'm sure that in the summer I will rest," said.
"I would like to have a news conference at the end of the season to say a proper goodbye after a total of 19 years at the club."
In his emotional Facebook tribute, Piqué said "it will be tough for me to imagine Barça without you", and that he thinks "nothing will ever be the same" when Puyol finally leaves.
He also recalled Puyol's gesture of letting Éric Abidal lift the Champions' League trophy in Wembley in 2011, just two months after the Frenchman had been diagnosed with liver cancer: "You gave the honour of lifting the trophy to Abi, which just makes you even greater".
Piqué's sadness seems very real - he concluded: "You are unique; a one-off. I find it amusing when they talk about signing 'the new Puyol'. They can look all they want, but they’ll never find it. Thanks for everything, Puyi."
