Fika's new craze: about the special Katargel league established in Barcelona | Israel today

About two months ago, Gerard Pique announced his retirement from active play, after a glorious career of almost 20 years, but whoever thinks that he intends to take advantage of the coming period to rest, simply does not know the man.

Even during the time when he was a senior player in Barcelona, ​​Pique entered with all his might into the world of entrepreneurship and business.

He founded the "Cosmos" company, which, among other things, purchased the rights to the Davis Cup in tennis for 3 billion dollars for 25 years.

He purchased the Andorra football club, which now plays in the second division in Spain.

And his latest and shining venture is the "League of Kings" - an international Catergal league, the likes of which has never existed before.

Last week the new league was launched in Barcelona with the participation of 12 teams, some of which have famous presidents: Iker Casillas in the 1K team, Sergio "Kun" Aguero in the Kunisports team.

Fika's partner in the "King's League" and other responsible ventures is network anchor Ibai Janos, who has 8 million followers on Instagram and millions more on the Twitch channel - where the new league games are broadcast live.

Pika and eBay Janos initiated the Balloon World Cup last year.

And it's exactly what it sounds like: players facing off against each other with the goal of the balloon not hitting the floor.

In October, the "Balloon World Cup" took place for the second time.

The cooperation between Pika and Ibai Janos is of course strategic.

The goal is to bring in new, younger audiences, those that are on social networks.

Chicharito in action, photo: Gettyimages

Pique arrived at the league's launch party last Sunday and sat in the VIP booth with his two sons, looking extremely excited.

He invested a lot of time and money in this project and believes that this is only the beginning.

After the league established in Spain, the plan is to establish similar leagues in London and Los Angeles in the near future.

All games are broadcast on the league's Twitch channel, all teams broadcast their games on dedicated channels, and according to the organizers, about 800,000 people watched the opening round, far beyond predictions.

Javier Hernandez, aka Chicharito, the 34-year-old star of the Los Angeles Galaxy, and who scored 52 goals in 109 games for the Mexican national team, was very enthusiastic about what he saw, after playing in the opening round.

"It is noticeable that everything that happens in this league, on social networks, on Twitch, is done after serious preparatory work. The product is fantastic," he said.

"I think we still don't understand the impact of this."

In the meantime, the games are being held without an audience, in a hall located not far from the Barcelona airport, but soon seats will be installed for several hundred spectators.

💥 @capde11 !!!!!!!! #KingsLeagueJ1 #InfoJobs pic.twitter.com/Dpt2F6GwqO

— Kings League InfoJobs (@KingsLeague) January 1, 2023

Oriol Carroll, the general manager of the league, said: "We have many plans for the future, but right now what is certain is the Queen's League, the women's hurling league, which will open in May." And what about players? One of the big names is Joan Cappadilla , who won the World Cup with Spain in 2010 who scored the winning goal for his team, De Graphages Saiyans.

Apart from Chiccirto, who plays for Porsinos, other familiar names who played in the opening round were former Espanyol star Raul Tamodo, Juan Verdo (also ex-Espanyol), Alberto Bueno (Real Madrid and Derby), Carlos Planes (ex-Barca and Celta). and Jonathan Soriano, who scored 172 goals for Salzburg.

Except for the known former players, the rest of the players were selected by the draft method.

One of them is David Elba, Jordi Elba's brother.

The basic rules are familiar: each game lasts 40 minutes, each team has 7 players.

But there are also some new and interesting rules.

Empieza EL PARTIDAZO de la jornada.@Saiyans_FC_ VS @FCPorcinos @TheGrefg VS @IbaiLlanos pic.twitter.com/NxAZZoDO7Q

— Kings League InfoJobs (@KingsLeague) January 1, 2023

For example, the start of the game is the water polo method: both teams stand on the goal line and when the buzzer sounds, everyone rushes towards the ball standing in the center of the field.

There is also VAR, but each team is allowed to request his intervention only once in a match - unless the appeal of the referee's decision has been accepted, in which case there is the possibility of another request.

But the most interesting innovation is the "golden card", which every coach chooses before the game, without seeing.

There are five cards to choose from: immediate penalty, taking the opponent's golden card, sending off an opposing player for 2 minutes, a goal scored in the next minute will be worth two goals - and a joker card - the person who takes it can choose one of the four previous options.

Some of the team presidents didn't like the idea, but in the end the crowd was in favor.

And that's what counts.

And Chicharito concluded: "The level pleasantly surprised me, but I wasn't surprised by the level of organization. I wouldn't have come all the way from Los Angeles to pass the time. I liked the involvement of the spectators and the new rules. Gerard Piqué is a guy who isn't afraid to dare And to innovate and do things that others might be afraid of. I definitely see the league developing into new places. You always have to aim as high as possible."

were we wrong

We will fix it!

If you found an error in the article, we would appreciate it if you shared it with us