From 'Piquenbauer' to meme

"All the children wanted to be his friend," explains a Masia coach.

Gerard Piqué arrived at Barcelona's grassroots football in 1997 to play for Alevín B, at that time, the first of the lower categories.

His father picked him up in a Porsche;

his mother, in a

Mercedes.

“The rest of the children, Gerard attracted a lot of attention.

He had money, he was funny.

The clown of the group.

And he played very well, of course, ”says the same source.

Not long ago, this coach came across the mother of Fàbregas, Piqué's partner at La Masia.

“Poor Cesc, he was always dirty because of Gerard.

He got him into all the trouble,” he reminded her.

After 25 years, Piqué's image has not changed at La Masia.

"It does not matter.

He is a guy who has put a lot of nose into life.

He is launched ”, finish the same sources.

Immense soccer player, his personality, on the other hand, was always a coin tossed.

At least, for those who shared the day to day with him.

“We reached the first team together 15 years ago.

He will be missed in the dressing room”, summarized Sergio Busquets, first captain of Barcelona.

Despite the fact that in recent times Piqué had chosen to take refuge in a lower profile, his presence in the Camp Nou dressing room left no one indifferent.

And it was nothing new.

His relationship with Busquets changed from good to bad, as well as the one he had with Leo Messi.

When the wind blew in favor, the Argentine could not help but laugh with Piqué.

A historic Barça employee tells that, in 2016, on one of those occasions in which the Argentine was walking with the fly behind his ear and was considering leaving the Barça entity, he arrived at the Ciudad Deportiva and crossed paths with Piqué.

His old classmate from the '87 class made him laugh.

"Where are you going?

Where are you going to get the jokes from Geri?

Messi stayed.

The problem was that the graces of 3, sometimes, ceased to be so.

Like when they both set fire to an old motorcycle owned by a prop man — “it made a lot of noise”, he justified it and the next day they bought him a new one— or like when he dropped two stink bombs during a Barça expedition.

At that time, Luis Enrique was in charge at the Camp Nou, and he got fed up with him, especially after an incident between the defender and the Guardia Urbana.

"You envy me because I'm famous," Piqué told the police after being fined for having the car improperly parked.

His lack of discipline delayed one of his old dreams: wearing the Barça bracelet.

He had it from the 2018-2019 season, 10 years after his return to the club.

The central, in any case, had patience.

And without saying a word (much) he saw how Messi, Busquets and even Javier Mascherano, who had arrived at Barcelona in 2010 and had no sentimental link with the Camp Nou, advanced him in the quartet of captains.

And, at a time when the leaders of the locker room were not very likely to show their faces in bad times, the Catalan defender rarely hid.

“You had to be careful because he could blurt out a lot, but it was easy to negotiate with him to get him to talk,” says a Barça employee.

His ability to overcome awkward moments in front of the microphones collided with his way of interpreting a choral leadership.

In 2020, when the rest of the captains (Messi, Busquets and Sergi Roberto) negotiated with the then president, Josep Maria Bartomeu, a salary reduction for the entire squad, he, Ter Stegen, Lenglet and De Jong signed a separate renewal.

The heavyweights of the group did not overlook the unsupportive attitude of the central.

The next day, Piqué's name appeared on the board in the dressing room at the Ciudad Deportiva along with the word traitor.

The maneuver that Piqué carried out with Bartomeu was repeated with Joan Laporta at the head of the club.

In 2021, the day after Messi's goodbye to PSG was confirmed because, according to the president, he could not afford the Argentine's salary, the Barça top manager gathered all the first team players at the Ciudad Deportiva.

“Piqué was already exemplary and the salary was lowered.

Now he touches you too, ”said Laporta.

With his salary cut, the center-back helped register the signings for that summer window.

But the idyll of the board with Piqué vanished.

"There was a smear campaign against Gerard," warn those who know the central.

So, 3 went from Piquenbauer's nickname to become a gold mine for memes.

But he never doubted his undisguisable talent.

30 titles and 53 goals

"There was a time when we prayed that Piqué would not fall, because if he were to get injured, the invention would be dismantled, it would fall," acknowledged Tito Vilanova, assistant coach, in June 2011, when the defender led the defense with Puyol of the most successful team in Barça history: 14 titles out of 19 between 2008 and 2012. In total, Piqué lifted 30 titles and scored 53 goals in 615 games, some well-remembered like the one he signed against Madrid in the historic 2-6.

"Do you remember Iker?

What a great goal!”, the center-back released to Casillas during a video with fans at a concentration of La Roja.

His performance, however, suffered in recent campaigns.

“He has realized that it was already costing him,” they add from the football area.

He, for his part, half jokingly, half seriously, has been saying for a long time: “Soccer is my hobby,

Son of the Catalan bourgeoisie —"I have had certain opportunities in life that not everyone has, it is evident", he stated in an interview with this newspaper—, Piqué always had an eye on the business world.

In 2012 he created a video game company, which closed in 2018. He was a link between Rakuten and Barcelona — “he charged a commission for that,” says a former Barça manager—.

He has an audiovisual production company that produced the documentary Griezmann's decision and that was also involved in the MatchDay series of Barcelona's 2018-2019 campaign – his teammates did not attend the Avant premier, angry at not receiving what they had promised him.

And he owns Andorra, which in three and a half years climbed from the First Catalan to the Second Division.

Until next Tuesday, a footballer, a businessman for a long time, with a policy between eyebrows —"one day I will be president of Barça", he told this newspaper in 2011—, Piqué is a unique character who has never gone unnoticed, not even when he entered to the Masia with 10 years nor this Saturday, who will say goodbye with 35 of his beloved Camp Nou.

You can follow EL PAÍS Deportes on

Subscribe to continue reading

read without limits

Keep reading

I'm already a subscriber