Barca look to tie down Puyol

Posted Tuesday, July 24, 2012 by ESPNSTAR.com

Barcelona are ready to offer captain Carles Puyol an extension to his contract as he made his return to training after being out for two months with an injury.

Spanish daily Sport reports that the club will offer the 34-year-old a new contract as he has started the final year of his current one this month. The one-club man has been a part of Barcelona for 17 seasons and is widely respected at the club and will likely see out his playing career with the Blaugrana.

Last season, he played as a left-back for most of the games in the La Liga and Argentinean midfielder Javier Mascherano was chosen to partner Gerard Pique in the centre of defence. It's likely that Puyol will play as a central defender under new manager Tito Vilanova as the Catalan club recently signed Jordi Alba to help fill the left-back position.

Earlier in May, the centre-back had suffered a knee injury which ruled him out of Spain's successful defence of their European title at Euro 2012. But it appears that he has made a full recovery and the club announced on Monday that he is close to being fit and ready for the new season.

"The captain trained apart from the rest of the squad in the group's penultimate session before they fly out to Germany on Tuesday for their first pre-season friendly against Hamburg," the club announced on their website.

"Puyol will undergo further medical tests next Monday, July 30th, to confirm his fitness to return to full training - the same day that the team's Spanish internationals resume training."

Full-back Dani Alves was pleased with the development and was eager to welcome the Spain international back to the fold.

"I am very happy that Puyi is back, and that he's in good shape and he is recovering," he said.

"I think that with Puyi you don't need to look at his age, because it's irrelevant. For me, he's like a two-year-old kid."