'Great surprise' - Barcelona defender Gerard Pique announces retirement, Saturday to be last game in football
ByTNT Sports
Updated 03/11/2022 at 20:08 GMT
The defender will go down as one of the best of his generation having starred for Pep Guardiola when at Barcelona and with Spain, winning the European Championships twie as well as the World Cup in 2010. However injuries have hit him recently and he has been out of favour. He is expected to pursue his various business ventures and is seen by some as a future president.
Nagelsmann refuses to answer questions about Barcelona CL exit
Barcelona and Spain defender Gerard Pique has announced his retirement from professional football.
Pique, who won multiple honours with Barcelona, as well as the 2010 World Cup with the national team, has been out of favour this season under Xavi Hernandez.
In a statement he confirmed that Saturday's La Liga game against Almeria will be his last.
The 35-year-old had been a near-constant fixture in Barcelona's starting line-up after joining from Manchester United in 2008, but in recent years had started to suffer from regular injuries.
Nevertheless, Eurosport Spain's Edgar Saiz said the announcement is a shock.
"It was a great surprise because nobody expected it," he said. "It’s true that due to his performance, it was expected that he would retire at the end of the season, but now it is a bit strange."
In the 2020/21 season he made just 18 league appearances, and 23 overall for his club. In this season he has made only five league starts and nine in total, with four coming in a disappointing Champions League campaign which has seen the side fail to qualify for the knockout stages.
The arrival of players such as Eric Garcia and Ronald Araujo have forced him down the pecking order at the Camp Nou.
"[Jules] Kounde, Araujo, [Andreas] Christensen and Eric García, Gerard was the fifth central defender for Xavi. In addition, he is also using Marcos Alonso in that area," Saiz said.
Pique made his professional debut for Manchester United in the 2004 season after joining as a teenager from Barcelona. He spent the 2006/7 season on loan at Real Zaragoza and left to return to his boyhood club, with Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand offering him little chance of regular football under Alex Ferguson.
Pique retired from international football in 2018 and scored five goals in 102 appearances, while also making 10 appearances for the Catalonia representative side.
He won the 2010 World Cup, following it up with the 2012 European Championship.
For Barcelona, he played 615 times, netting 52 goals. With Barca he won eight La Liga titles, seven Copas del Reys, and three of each of the Champions League, Super Cup and Club World Cup.
Saiz believes that while Pique's departure will help the financial situation at the club, it is not believed to be the reason behind the decision, explaining: "It’s said that he has forgiven his salary, but I think that it’s more because of a sport’s situation and that his relationship with Xavi is not the best."
Off the pitch, he is the founder of Kosmos Holding, a media investment group, which has a deal with the International Tennis Federation to be involved in the Davis Cup, and also owns Spanish football club FC Andorra, as well as investing in another Spanish club, Gimnastic Manresa.
Saiz believes his off-the-pitch interests could see him come back in another capacity in future.
"In the video he has said that he will return," Saiz noted. "It has always been said that he will be president of Barca in the future. Due to his business knowledge it’s a very real choice."
Related Topics
Share this article
Advertisement
Advertisement