Francisco "Patxi" Puñal Martínez (born 6 September 1975) is a Spanish retired footballer who played as a

defensive midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundari ...

. The vast bulk of his professional career was connected with Osasuna, where he was often charged with

penalty Penalty or The Penalty may refer to: Sports * Penalty (golf) * Penalty (gridiron football) * Penalty (ice hockey) * Penalty (rugby) * Penalty (rugby union) * Penalty kick (association football) * Penalty shoot-out (association football) A p ...

-taking and for which he appeared in 513 competitive matches.

Club career

Born in Huarte, Navarre, Puñal played his entire professional career with

CA Osasuna Club Atlético Osasuna (, ''Osasuna Athletic Club''), or simply Osasuna, is a Spanish professional football club in Pamplona, Navarre. Founded on 24 October 1920, the club currently plays in La Liga, holding home games at the 23,576-capacity El S ...

save for two on-loan seasons with

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

's CD Leganés, in Segunda División. His first official game for the first team came on 15 June 1997 in a 1–1 away draw against

SD Eibar Sociedad Deportiva Eibar (in eu, Eibar Kirol Elkartea) is a professional Spanish football club based in Eibar, Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous Basque Country. Founded on 30 November 1940, the team currently plays in the Segunda División, the s ...

, in the same tier. After his loan spell, Puñal returned as an undisputed first choice, scoring his first

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known simply as Primera División in Spain, and as La Liga in English-speaking countries and officially as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, stylized as LaLiga, is the men' ...

goal on 27 October 2001 at already 26, in a 4–0 home win over RCD Mallorca. In Osasuna's 2005–06 historical league campaign, which brought a best ever fourth-place finish, he netted four in 34 matches. On 29 November 2006, as the side went on to reach the last-four in the

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

easily beating teams like

Bayer Leverkusen Bayer 04 Leverkusen Fußball GmbH, also known as Bayer 04 Leverkusen (), Bayer Leverkusen, or simply Leverkusen, is a professional football club based in Leverkusen in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The club competes in the Bundesliga, t ...

Parma Parma (; egl, Pärma, ) is a city in the northern Italian region of Emilia-Romagna known for its architecture, music, art, prosciutto (ham), cheese and surrounding countryside. With a population of 198,292 inhabitants, Parma is the second mos ...

, Girondins de Bordeaux or

Glasgow Rangers Rangers Football Club is a Scottish professional football club based in the Govan district of Glasgow which plays in the Scottish Premiership. Although not its official name, it is often referred to as Glasgow Rangers outside Scotland. The fou ...

., Puñal scored three times (one in his net) in a 3–1 home defeat of

Odense Boldklub Odense Boldklub (; also known as Odense BK or the more commonly used OB) is a Danish professional football club based in the city Odense. The club has won three Danish championships and five Danish Cup trophies. OB play in the Danish Superliga ...

in the group stage. He made 47 official appearances that season. From 2007 to 2010, veteran Puñal continued to figure prominently for Osasuna, featuring in exactly 100 league games – scoring twice through penalties, in a 2–0 win at Getafe CF and a 1–2 home loss to Real Madrid, both goals coming during 2007–08 – and also being the captain after the retirement of César Cruchaga. During that timeframe, he was booked a total of 37 times. Puñal finished 2012 on a high note, being a father for the first time and having appeared in a total of 470 competitive matches for his main club, a best-ever. He obtained the record after his 464th overall appearance on 21 October, against

Real Betis Real Betis Balompié, known as Real Betis () or just Betis, is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville in the autonomous community of Andalusia. Founded in 1907, it plays in La Liga. It holds home games at the Estadio Benito Vill ...

, and on 26 May 2013 he again entered the team's history books, netting from 30 meters and contributing to a 2–1 home victory over

Sevilla FC Sevilla Fútbol Club () is a Spanish professional football club based in Seville, the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Andalusia, Spain. It plays in Spanish football's top flight, La Liga. Sevilla have won the UEFA E ...

which certified permanence in the top division for another year, with one game remaining.

Merits

* List of La Liga players (400+ appearances) * In 2014, the Government of Navarra awarded him the Gold Medal for Sporting Merit of

Navarra Navarre (; es, Navarra ; eu, Nafarroa ), officially the Chartered Community of Navarre ( es, Comunidad Foral de Navarra, links=no ; eu, Nafarroako Foru Komunitatea, links=no ), is a foral autonomous community and province in northern Spain, ...

, the highest sporting award granted in the Government of Navarra.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Punal, Francisco 1975 births Living people Spanish footballers Footballers from Navarre Association football midfielders La Liga players Segunda División players Segunda División B players Tercera División players CA Osasuna B players CA Osasuna players CD Leganés players Basque Country international footballers