The Captain Class: A New Theory of Leadership

by Sam Walker

During matches, Puyol’s relentlessness was often demonstrated by his intimate relationship with the medical staple gun. During a match in April 2012, in the middle of a tight race for the league title, the manager of the opposing team alerted the referee to Puyol’s forehead, which had been cut in a collision with another player. Puyol dashed over to the trainers with an expression of cartoonish urgency. Unless Barcelona wanted to substitute Puyol (which it didn’t), the only option was to staple the wound right there on the sidelines. Puyol was fine with that. His only concern was that the process went quickly. As the trainer examined the cut, Puyol impatiently grabbed at the staple gun as if he wanted to employ it himself. When the trainer snapped the staple in place, Puyol didn’t flinch. He ran to the touchline, manically waving his hands at the referee. Minutes later, with Puyol back in place, Barcelona’s Lionel Messi scored the winning goal. In an interview, Puyol described the incident as “nothing.” As I showed him a video of the stapling event, Puyol said he hoped he’d apologized to the doctors. “I’m a disaster for them because I rush them,” he said. But because he played defense on a team that wasn’t very defensive, he hated to miss even a few seconds. “If the other team scored a goal, I would have felt horrible.”