In the perennial pressure-cooker that is Barcelona, Carles Puyol has done the near-impossible. In a decade of first-team football, his spot in the team was never once questioned as a result of never having had a bad stretch of games. The wild-maned defender, who has won awards for his work as both a right and center back, has since become the superb team's captain and is one of its longest-tenured players, ranking third in appearances all time. A mainstay in Spain's back line ever since the 2002 World Cup, life without Puyol would be frightening indeed.
Scouting thumbnail: All-out intensity, brave and unmatched effort. Occasionally has positional lapses but makes up for it with sheer hustle.

If it's international-tournament time, that means Spain is officially on red alert. For all of the quality players and international prestige Spain has earned over the years, its national team still can't win when it counts. Its best finish at the World Cup was way back in 1950, when La Furia Roja finished fourth.
Spain's history at the European Championship is a little better -- it won the tournament once, in 1964, and lost to France in Paris in the '84 final. Still, that's not a lot of silverware to show for the country that consistently produces some of the best players in the world. So forgive the casual Spanish fan for feeling a little skeptical when his national team is being touted as one of the favorites to win the 2008 European Championship. That's like the kiss of death.
But hope hasn't been this high in years. Spain's '06 World Cup team predictably flamed out in the round of 16 to eventual finalist France, but the youth movement the team enjoyed seemed to herald a change in things to come. Players like Fernando Torres, Cesc Fàbregas, David Villa and Sergio Ramos seemed to show no knowledge of Spain's failings at the international levelRead