Thursday, March 28

Pique’s worst moment


Gerard Hammered, in a file image. / afp

FC Barcelona

To the injuries, the ‘Supercopa case’ and his personal problems, he joins now that Xavi no longer considers him indispensable

Bad times for Gerard Piqué, who is still submerged in his particular volcano. After the Super Cup scandal, his personal problems and the bad run of injuries with which the season ended, the Barça defender returns to the fore after Xavi Hernández told him that he is no longer an indispensable player for him . One more stick for a footballer who is working to recover his place in the Blaugrana plans and who wants to fulfill the remaining two years of his contract, even if it is at the cost of a new salary reduction.

“I will be the owner. If you have noses, bring the best central defender in the world, who will come to be a substitute”, Piqué told Joan Laporta after the meeting they both had last week, according to the journalist Xavi Valls in the Onze de Esports 3 program. The words of the defender were the culmination of a conversation that has been brewing for some time within the Blaugrana club. The president of the culé entity did not like the end of the season of his own, as he recognized before finishing the course. “I’m leaving the season pissed off and disappointed with the attitude of the team,” he said. A few words that now acquire even more importance after the meeting with one of the captains.

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Piqué’s words to the president have their roots in a previous conversation that the center-back had already had with Xavi. The Tarrasa coach continues with the firm idea of ​​making a profound renovation and is not willing to marry any of the ‘sacred cows’, not even a player who was a starter last season whenever he was available and who continues to have a lot of weight in the dressing room. Xavi informed him that he is no longer an essential player for his project and that the club is considering different options on the market to strengthen his position, a message that the center-back assimilated and to which he responded by making an amendment with the idea of ​​training more than never and abandon their extra-football commitments.

The scenario that arises now in Barcelona with the footballer has many open fronts. The problem with Piqué is not so much his performance, last year he played a total of 39 games with the Barça shirt, but rather his high profile. The former Manchester United could receive more than 40 million euros deferred from his previous salary cut, the one he signed when Josep Maria Bartomeu was still president, a real scourge for a club that continues to subscribe to an endless economic crisis and that goes to this transfer market with the intention of continuing to lower their wage bill. “I’m going to help as much as I can,” the player said in this regard at the last meeting with the club, words in which his desire to complete the two years remaining on his contract is already sensed.

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Xavi’s decision comes after a fateful final stretch of the season for Piqué. The center-back dragged discomfort during the second half of the course and the glass overflowed at the worst possible moment, when his team entered the decisive stretch. The 35-year-old player missed seven of the last nine league games and witnessed from the stands the debacle of his team at the Camp Nou against Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League due to an adductor injury.

Mess off the lawn

Gerard Piqué’s problems go far beyond the playing field. Last month the audios between Luis Rubiales and the footballer came to light, some listening in which benefits were agreed for Kosmos, the player’s company, of 24 million euros for acting as an intermediary and taking the Spanish Super Cup to Saudi Arabia in 2019. “Thank you for everything and here I am for whatever you need,” the president of the Spanish Football Federation concluded that day. A few words that increased the stir around Piqué and for which he had to go out and explain. “I do not regret it, I think we have done a very good job and that nothing has been done wrong, neither legally nor morally,” he assured.

That scandal was the penultimate in the middle of the hurricane that Piqué is experiencing. The soccer player’s extra-sports problems have also affected his sentimental life. The center-back has said goodbye to the relationship of more than a decade that he had with Shakira, mother of his two children, and could have intensified his nightlife, something that Xavi would not have liked either, a coach who already assured in his presentation that he wanted bring back the “club rules”. Given all this, the footballer’s reaction is none other than to continue working and this same Tuesday he uploaded a video to social networks crushing himself in the gym, a message with which to show that he is not willing to throw in the towel


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