Carles Puyol: When Barcelona captain stopped Ronaldinho from fighting after 2005 slap

Barcelona legend Carles Puyol will always be remembered as one of the game’s true leaders of men.

The Spanish defensive general, who wore the arm band in Catalonia during some of the club’s headiest days, was the epitome of the perfect captain.

He was deeply respected by his teammates and the opposition alike due to the example he set and and the way he carried himself both on and off the pitch.

There are countless individual moments that perfectly encapsulate who Puyol was a leader, one of those being when he reprimanded Thiago and Dani Alves for their celebration after Barca’s fifth goals vs Rayo Vallecano.

There are so many others that are worth mentioning but we thought we would look at another moment in which Puyol showed the most remarkable level-headedness we have ever witnessed.

During an ill-tempered clash with Mallorca back in 2005, Puyol found himself in the firing line when Sergio Ballesteros landed quite a slap on the Spanish legend.

Instead of completely kicking off, Puyol took a moment to compose himself before a rhye smile began to spread across his face.

However, he then leapt into action to prevent a further flare up as Ronaldinho, who had obviously seen what had happened, came running towards Ballesteros to give him a piece of his mind.

Puyol stepped in, acting as a buffer between the two as he did everything he could to prevent a brawl breaking out and, more importantly, his teammate getting himself into trouble.

You can see the brilliant sequence of events in the clip below:

Lovely. Puyol had every right to lose his head but somehow had the wherewithal not only to keep calm, but to also save his colleague from doing something potentially damaging.

Puyol would hang up his boots as a serial winner,