Oleguer Presas

"Oleguer" redirects here. For the saint of this name, see Olegarius.

Oleguer Presas

File:Penis.jpg
Personal information
Full name	Oleguer Presas i Renom
Height	1.87 m (6 ft 1+1⁄2 in)
Position(s)	Centre Back, Right Back
Team information
Current team	FC Barcelona
Number	23

Olegay Prat i Retard (born February 2 1980 in Sabadell, Catalonia, Spain) is a Spanish football player. Currently playing for FC Barcelona. He is an economics graduate who missed training at FC Barcelona to complete his finals.

Career

Olegay, started his career at the modest Lepanto, a club from his hometown of Sabadell. In 1997 he joined UDA Gramenet, making his senior debut in 2001. When he was 21 he signed for the FC Barcelona B team and made his debut for FC Barcelona in 2002 during a Champions League match between Barça and Galatasaray. During the following season he played for both teams, on occasion being a last minute addition to the senior squad.

He was an important player for FC Barcelona as they won La Liga in 2005. He is a speedy and incisive defender and embodies the youth development philosophy of FC Barcelona. He usually plays as a right back, but due to repeated injuries to central defenders in the 2004-2005 season, he was often paired with Carles Puyol. During the 05-06 season, he challenged Juliano Belletti for the right back position, as he presented a more defensive alternative to the more offensive Brazilian.

He has sympathies with left wing and Catalan nationalist causes and was asked by Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas to play a charity match in Chiapas, Mexico during the summer of 2005. In late 2005 he was invited to take part in a meeting of shortlisted players for the Spanish national squad, an invitation that he accepted.

On the March 30 2006 he published his first book with recollections on his youth, early career and the La Liga triumph of 2004-2005. The book, called Camí d'Itaca (The road to Ithaca), dealt with such varied subjects as childhood anorexia, the antifascist struggle and the previous Spanish government's involvement in both Gulf Wars. The book also touched on his love of tennis and the experience of the street parade through the Avinguda Diagonal in Barcelona upon winning La Liga in 2005. Oleguer was injured with a muscle strain in the match against AC Milan at San Siro and missed the return leg of the draw which Barça won on aggregate (0-1) and two further league matches. He was absent in the league winning match against Celta de Vigo on 3 May, 2006 but he returned to play in the next match at the Camp Nou, where the trophy was presented to the team. True to form, Oleguer celebrated wrapped in the colors of the senyera, the Catalan flag.

On 17 May. 2006 Barça beat Arsenal F.C. to win the European Cup, or UEFA Champions League for the second time in their history. Oleguer was in the first eleven, but on the day he appeared tense and slow, struggling to neutralize Freddie Ljungberg's runs down the wing and more importantly not being able to stop Sol Campbell scoring the opening goal. In the 71st minute he was substituted in favor of Juliano Belletti, an inspired decision by manager Frank Rijkaard, as Belletti went on to score the Champions League winning goal on the night.

Oleguer signed a contract extension in July 2006, keeping him with the club until 2010. Oleguer had the honor of captaining the team for the first time in their initial pre-season game of the 2006-07 campaign, in recognition of his work over the last few seasons. With the arrival of Gianluca Zambrotta and Lilian Thuram, Oleguer found himself coming on from the bench in the first few matches of the 2006-07 La Liga season. On 29 November, 2006 He was awarded the President Companys award for his efforts in promoting the official recognition of Catalan sports at an international level.

On the 7 February, 2007, in an article written for Basque language newspaper Berria, he questioned the validity and independence of legal and judicial processes in the Spanish state, using the example of ETA member Jose Ignacio de Juana Chaos and his hunger strike to question those processes. His decision to write the article brought veiled criticism from his coach, Frank Rijkaard, and Barça President Joan Laporta. As a direct result of the article, Oleguer lost his boot sponsorship with sports firm Kelme. Oleguer has been the subject of a strong public backlash in Spain and is regularly heckled and booed in some of the country's football stadiums due to his anti-government, anti-system and pro-radical Catalan stance. When asked about whether he felt that he should not have written the piece, Oleguer replied, "The consequences I suffer are nothing compared to what many people go through. What did sadden me, though, was that most people didn't actually read the piece. If people engaged in dialogue with intelligence and disagreed, then fine, but they didn't."

The 2007-2008 season started positively in sporting terms as he became a fixture in Rijkaard's starting eleven. However, at a personal level he was accused of an assault on a policeman and ten other people charged with affray during an incident in a bar in Sabadell which occurred in 2003. He also spoke out against the Spanish football federation's banning of the Catalan national football team playing a friendly against the USA in conjunction with FIFA recognized international matches in that same week. On the 9th of February 2008 in a league match against Sevilla FC, Oleguer broke a bone in his left hand. He was operated on and it was predicted he would spend six weeks on the sidelines.

Trophies

• 2003-04 Copa Catalunya
• 2004-05 Copa Catalunya
• 2004-05 Spanish League title
• 2005-Spanish supercup
• 2005-06 Spanish League title
• 2005-06 UEFA Champions League
• 2006-Spanish supercup
• 2006-07 Copa Catalunya

All trophies won with FC Barcelona.

Sporting Statistics

• Defender
• Height: 187 cm
• Weight: 82 kg
• His squad number at Barça is 23.
• His current contract runs until 30 July 2010.
• His buy-out clause is set at 60 million Euros. It should be noted that most buy-out clauses are a greatly inflated estimate of a player's worth in order to ward off other clubs.

Career Statistics

As of December 12, 2007

Club	Season	League		Cup		Europe		Total
		Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals	Apps	Goals
Gramenet	1998-2001	41	2	0	0	2	0	41	2
	Total	41	2					41	2
FC Barcelona B	2001-2002	34	0			-	-	34	0
	Total	34	0			-	-	34	0
FC Barcelona	2002-03	3	0	0	0	2	0	5	0
	2003-04	19	0	0	0	4	0	23	0
	2004-05	36	1	0	0	7	0	43	1
	2005-06	33	0	0	0	11	0	44	0
	2006-07	25	0	5	0	5	0	35	0
	2007-08	9	0	1	0	2	0	12	0
	Total	125	0	6	0	31	0	162	1
Career totals		200	3	6	0	31	0	237	3