Picking a Barcelona Cult Heroes XI
Picking a Barcelona cult heroes XI is a difficult task not least because the team is so subjective.
Many supporters of the club will have favourite players that they have held in the highest regard over the years, and for varying reasons one or another will have become a cult figure.
In this particular list, there may well be some surprises and some glaring admissions.
Please leave your comments and some of your alternatives for this squad in the comments section below.
Let's take a look at who has made the final cut...
Francisco Javier Gonzalez Urruticoechea 'Urruti'
1 of 11Francisco Javier Gonzalez Urruticoechea or "Urruti" as he was more commonly known, will go down in history as the goalkeeper to have secured the 1984/85 La Liga title after an 11-year wait for the Catalans.
With four games of the season to go, Barcelona knew that a win away at Real Valladolid would mathematically secure them the title.
At 2-1 up with just two minutes left, the hosts were awarded a penalty.
Urruti's save meant that ultimately the title was secured. Commentary from Joaquim Maria Puyal has since gone down in Barca folklore. "Urruti t'estimo!" or "Urruti, I love you!" can be heard in all its glory above.
Juliano Belletti
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Juliano Belletti only scored one goal in his entire Barca career. The winner in the 2006 Champions League Final after coming on as a substitute.
For that one reason alone, he will always remain a cult hero for the Barca faithful, securing just the second Champions League trophy after Barca's debut win at Wembley in 1992.
Whilst his three seasons at the club were difficult for either reasons of form or injury, Belletti always gave his best and wore the shirt with pride. That's all most supporters will ever ask.
Eric Abidal
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It's doubtful that there are too many players at Barca that are more loved by the fans than Eric Abidal.
The Frenchman was signed to provide cover in both the left-side of central defence and also at left-back and it was something that he did with aplomb.
Sadly for Abidal, cancer would disrupt his career not once, but twice. Despite such devastating news, there remained a passion and desire to get back to competitive action at the top level.
That it was achieved on both occasions says much about Eric Abidal.
Surely one of the most endearing images of Barca's recent history is of Abidal holding the Champions League trophy aloft at Wembley Stadium in 2011?
Oleguer Presas
4 of 11What Oleguer Presas might have lacked on the football pitch, he more than made up for with a philosophy that found a place in every Barca supporter's heart.
Never one to back down from giving his opinion, his staunch support of all things Catalan won him many admirers amongst the Barca faithful, perhaps leading them to turn a blind eye to his defensive shortcomings.
Sid Lowe of The Guardian noted that Oleguer was:
"A committed campaigner, an economics graduate who contributes to cultural and political journals with carefully elaborated articles, he supports Catalan literacy crusades and Catalan independence, and dedicated the only goal of his career to a fourteen year old from Sabadell who had been arrested for protesting against the mayor.
"
Certainly not your archetypal footballer.
Carles Puyol
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No cult XI is complete without the addition of Barca's "captain fantastic" Carles Puyol.
As distinctive for his shaggy curls as his defensive excellence, Puyol has been one of Barca's best servants of modern times.
Stevenson of total Barca notes Mundo Deportivo's list of 36 separate injuries that Puyol had received in his Barcelona career from the year 2000.
No doubting that it was the toll of injuries took on his body that meant that Puyol departed the scene a little earlier than he probably would've liked.
The familiar sight of him lifting trophy after trophy throughout the Pep Guardiola era will endure.
Robert Prosinecki
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Robert Prosinecki had all the talent in the world but somehow managed to squander it thanks to a love of the good life.
After helping Red Star Belgrade to a Champions League win in 1991, the Croatian tried his luck in La Liga.
Both at Madrid and Barcelona the experiment failed, but he still managed to endear himself to the Camp Nou faithful thanks to tales of smoking up to 40 cigarettes a day and enjoying a drink or two, per Lords of the Drinks.
One can only ponder how his manager at the time, Johan Cruyff, might have felt about that.
Luis Enrique
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One of a handful of players to cross the Real Madrid-Barca divide, Luis Enrique's arrival was initially met with some reticence from the terraces.
However, it wasn't too long before his performances in Blaugrana dispersed any ill-feeling that may have been left from his move from Los Blancos.
Once Lucho started scoring regularly in El Clasico's and made a point of showing his Barca shirt to the Madrid faithful each time, as in this video, his place in the hearts of the Blaugrana fanbase was assured.
Sandor Kocsis
8 of 11Sandor Kocsis' achievements at Barcelona will go down in history but have been largely forgotten given it has been over half a century since the Hungarian was in his pomp.
Part of the Barca team that became the first-ever side to knock Real Madrid out of the European Cup in 1960/61, one of Kocsis' most memorable goals came in that year's final, albeit he would end up on the losing side.
The goal would be a header of course, Kocsis noted as one of the best headers of a ball in the game at the time. Indeed, over 400 scored with his head would point to such prowess.
In a team that included Ladislav Kubala and Luis Suarez, that Sandor Kocsis was equally revered tells us much about a special player.
Hristo Stoichkov
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The enfant terrible of Barcelona, Hristo Stoichkov was idolised in Catalonia. And with good reason.
One of, if not the best Bulgarian player ever, Stoichkov revelled in his role as bad boy, even being banned for two months not long after signing for the Catalans after a deliberate stamp on a referee.
It was his prowess on the pitch that did most of the talking however, Stoichkov scoring some magnificent goals at a time which FIFA.com noted was:
"His best years as a footballer. Not only did he win titles, the free-scoring forward also conquered the hearts of the fans with his explosive runs, prodigious left foot and unique ability to swerve past an opponent at top speed.
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Henrik Larsson
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Despite making his name at Celtic where he remains by popular decree one of their best-ever players, Henrik Larsson can also point to his time at Barcelona as a success.
Signing a one-year contract for the 2004/05 season, the Swede damaged his cruciate ligament in an El Clasico match vs. Real Madrid in the November of that season.
Although he then missed the rest of the campaign, Barca decided to extend his deal which proved to be a wise move.
After announcing in December of 2005 that he would leave the Catalans at the end of the season, Larsson would go on to be decisive in securing Barca's second-ever Champions League title in Paris.
Coming on as a substitute, Larsson assisted both goals as Barca claimed victory, and his 10 league goals went some way to securing a second successive La Liga title to boot.
Luis Figo
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Unlike Luis Enrique who had enjoyed a successful career at Real Madrid before moving to Catalonia, Luis Figo will probably never be forgiven by Barca fans for making the switch in the opposite direction.
The Clasico at Camp Nou in November 2002 will always be remembered for the pig's head thrown at the Portuguese whilst taking a corner in the match.
However, before the controversial move, there is no doubt that Figo was a darling of the terraces, forming part of a devastating attack that included Patrick Kluivert and others.
Juan Carlos Castillo even noted in his 2007 International Journal of Iberian Studies article “The concept of loyalty and the challenge of internationalization in post-modern Spanish Football,” that Figo, at that particular time, was “an icon of barcelonismo.”
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