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