Eric Abidal the first person to be crowned 'Cule of the Year'

The first-ever 'Cule of the Year' will be Eric Abidal, Barcelona's sporting director. The award goes to the Frenchman, who returned to the club last year after a brilliant six-year spell as a player at Camp Nou. 

Abidal played almost 200 games for the club (193) and scored two goals, one against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu in the Copa. In addition, he won 14 titles, one of which was very special: the Champions League in Rome. It was then, in May 2011, when Carles Puyol let him lift the trophy after the win against Manchester United. 

The Cule of the Year awards will have six winners in total. It's an initiative launched by SPORT in collaboration with FC Barcelona and sponsors CaixaBank. 

A gala will be held on Feb. 14 in the Auditori 1899 to honour the winners. 

The awards were born to be a reference for the Barça world, whic his full of different personalities and characters who deserve recognition, all of whom share the Barça DNA: teamwork, solidarity, respect, fair play, humility, ambition, generosity, competitive... 

Barcelona president Josep Maria Bartomeu and vice president Jordi Cardoner, along with SPORT's Ernest Folch and David Casanovas, will present the awards. 

As well as Abidal, the other winners are:

Socio CulE OF ThE YEARJoan Casals (Avi del Barça) 

Joan Casals (Avi del Barça) 

SOLIDARITY AWARDFOUNDATION Leo Messi

FOUNDATION Leo Messi

SPECIAL AWARDSor Lucía Caram 

Sor Lucía Caram 

InternaTional CULE AWARDNujeen Mustafá 

Nujeen Mustafá 

CULE CAREER AWARDXavi Pascual 

Xavi Pascual