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The multiple and controversial businesses of Gerard Piqué

2023-02-04T13:24:52.168Z


Idol. Exceptional player, he began his commercial operations when he played soccer. He wanted to change the Davis Cup format and failed. He is associated with large companies. He brought the final of the Spanish League to Saudi Arabia.


"I always say.

I don't do business to make money, but money is the reflection of being successful and everyone wants to be successful.

I have set up companies to have a good time.

What matters is the journey.”

This is how Gerard Piqué spoke a year ago, in an interview for Forbes.

He was already beating his retirement from active football but

he did not imagine that a scandal like Shakira's divorce

would turn him into a character with a "planetary" reach, leaving behind his facet as a footballer (excellent) and businessman (controversial).

When one listens to Shakira's superhit (“a wolf like me is not for guys like you” or “you left me as a neighbor to the mother-in-law / with the press at the door and the debt in the Treasury”) or when reviewing the list of businesses in which Piqué is involved - a list that impresses with its number and also its problems and derivations - the other aspect, the sporting aspect, is left to one side.

Because Piqué, who retired from football a few months ago after almost two decades at the first professional level,

was an excellent player

.

He is one of the best central defenders of his time and probably of all time.

Piqué began in the youth divisions of Barcelona, ​​​​La Masía, together with "a certain Messi", he went to Manchester United at just 17 years old and, after a brief season in Zaragoza, and returned to the club of his life.

There, under the leadership of Messi himself and other exceptional names (Xavi, Iniesta, Busquet and Pujol among them) they starred

in the best cycle in history for a club team

, only comparable to Pelé's Santos: they won 8 Spanish leagues, 3 Champions and another 3 intercontinental.

Piqué was also irreplaceable at the golden moment of the Spanish National Team in a central duo with Pujol or Sergio Ramos, reaching the world title in 2010 and the Euro Cup two years later.

The relationship with Messi, apparently, did not end well, but that is another matter.

If our star went to Paris, Piqué did so shortly after, who

retired from football last November

: at that point the number of businesses in which he is involved and his own physical/technical situation were no longer enough to stay on the front line .

Unlike most footballers, Piqué comes from an (almost) golden cradle.

Joan's father is a lawyer and businessman, and her mother, Montserrat Bernabéu -the "mother-in-law" who is shot by Shakira in her song with Bizarrap- is also a successful entrepreneur, runs one of the largest medical rehabilitation centers important in your country.

Although her last name is Bernabéu, Mrs. Montserrat has no relationship with the famous leader who cemented the greatness of Real Madrid and whose name the stadium now bears.

By contrast, the Piqués are from "archrival" Barcelona where Gerard's grandfather, Amador Bernabéu, served as vice-president.

And where Gerard also has an objective, which he announced a few years ago: "My next stage is to be president of Barca."

Other footballers, at the end of their campaigns, also ventured into business.

But

Piqué has been doing it since he was fully active and in a truly striking quantity and diversity

.

Forbes included him in its latest list of "the 100 most creative Spaniards for business" although, due to some results such as the failure with the Davis Cup or the controversy that unleashed his negotiations with Saudi Arabia, all that is relative.

When the "Pique-gate" broke out a year ago, everyone wondered: Is he a business genius?

Is he smart?

An opportunist and an opportunist?

Or maybe a mix of all of the above?

“I have been living my life and achieving goals, which is what I think always moves us all.

I have been building a life in which I try to be happy, that is why we are here.

My main income right now is still soccer.

I am lucky to have had a very good career despite the fact that I have never moved for money.

Not when I was young.

I remember that when I went to Manchester they offered me three times more than what I asked Barça to stay.

They didn't give it to me and I decided to leave because I felt that if they didn't pay me, that's not even because they didn't value me.

But I have always moved by feeling, emotions and sensations.

The money of course helps and saves you a lot of headaches, but it is not the most important thing in life at all, ”he said at the time.

A year ago Shakira or the breaking of the Davis Cup agreement were not the axes of the scandal but

the contract that made the Spanish Football Federation sign to bring the national Super Cup to Saudi Arabia

.

Many criticized her for being linked to the Saudi regime and others for allegedly violating a code of sports ethics: Piqué was "art and part" of that Super Cup, since he was still playing for Barcelona.

Taking the Super Cup to Saudi lands brought a profit of 24 million euros

to his company Kosmos, as manager

.

Although Piqué comes from a wealthy family and he himself signed excellent contracts throughout his football career, he dedicated himself to a business education, first at Esade in his country and then with a master's degree at Harvard.

He built an important network of contacts, the most important being Hiroshi Mikitani, the owner of the Japanese Rakuten.

This company sponsored Barcelona for four seasons with an investment of 250 million euros.

“It all started in 2015 – revealed Josep Bartomeu, the former controversial president of the club – when we met with the people of Rakuten in San Francisco.

Piqué organized everything”.

Rakuten also became a partner of Piqué in Kosmos, his company that five years ago

produced a real "bombshell" in world tennis

: it convinced the International Federation of that sport (with the vote of 70% of the national federations). to end the historic format of the Davis Cup.

They imposed a new system, with a final round of one week in the same country, which has come to fruition in recent years but

has turned out to be a fiasco

.

Kosmos had promised a profit of 3,000 million dollars for 25 years - a staggering figure - but a few days ago the FIT announced the end of that agreement.

Starting next year, without Kosmos, they will try to revive the competition.

When Piqué proposed the transformation of the Davis Cup, one could interpret him as a "visionary"... or a "delusional".

A few days ago, in one of his many media interventions, he proposed replacing extra time in soccer with another definition: "That the two teams continue playing, but with one less, then two less, then three..." Before the affair of the Davis Cup, he had already had some other failure, but obviously they do not discourage him.

One of his holdings (Kerard Project 2000 SL) manages industrial and residential properties, garages, and advertising deals for isotonic drinks and luxury eyewear.

Both with that holding company and with Kosmos,

he entered the video game and e-sports business, here associated with the Japanese from Konami

.

The famous streamer Ibai Llanos, with whom he has shared the gatherings with such an impact in recent weeks and in which Kun Agüero also intervenes, is his partner in various ventures such as the brand new King's League.

Piqué

is also the owner of two clubs

(Gimnástic de Manresa and Andorra) and has intervention in the media with his channel "The Players", with productions of specials -such as that of the Frenchman Antoine Griezmann and another on the privacy of Barcelona- and with the purchase rights to broadcast Ligue 1 (French championship) on Spanish channels.

Piqué

ventured into the fantasy football business

-an online game where players line up with real players to compete with their friends based on performance- through the French company Sorare. He invested 3 million euros and became an investor in the French Sorare.

There he commented “the enormous potential in the sports games segment, in this digital economy where audience attention is the only really important currency.

I look forward to helping Sorare expand its partnerships with different soccer leagues, clubs and players around the world to build the best fantasy soccer experience out there.”

At that time they described it like this: “Piqué rubs shoulders and dines with the most popular personalities on the planet, such as Mark Zuckerberg, the owner of Facebook, the emperor of our time and married Shakira, one of the most famous singers in the world.

With this type of relationship,

Gerard is one of the exponents of the beautiful people of the 21st century

.

It is that Piqué lives football but takes time for all his business projects and is capable of going around the world in a private plane following and developing his initiatives ”.

Piqué's most recent bet with Ibar Llanos is the King's League,

a 7-a-side soccer championship involving influencers, streamers and retired players

.

The Piqué-Shakira scandal did not come at all bad for advertising coverage: as soon as Shakira's Session #53 was broadcast, Piqué ironized from the King's League digital sites exhibiting the (supposed) sponsorship of Casio and Twingo…Although from La Liga -which manages the professional Spanish soccer championship- described it as "a circus", the promoters of the King's League are not concerned: theirs is going the other way, pure show.

“When Kun Agüero entered dressed as the Joker, we had almost a million and a half visits on social networks.

And each day summons at least half a million visitors”, they explain.

Over there,

advertisers and fun are not lacking

.

look also

The Davis Cup, the story of a tournament that was glorious until Piqué arrived and turned it into a Twingo

Messi and Kun play together again?

Agüero's team in the Kings League wants to reunite them in the "last dance"

Source: clarin

All business articles on 2023-02-04

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