Gerard Piqué Announces Retirement From Football
Footballer, Gerard Piqué, has announced his exit from Barcelona and football generally.
In a video published on his social media pages on Thursday, Piqué said that he would play his last game in the team’s shirt this week.
2 February 1987 saw the birth of a true Barça man and he was made a Club member that very same day. He played in the FC Barcelona social tournament as a young boy before joining the first youth category at the time, the Under 12Bs, at the age of 10. He then moved up through the youth levels before deciding to temporarily halt his time at Barça to join Manchester United at the end of the 2003/04 season. While at the Red Devils, Gerard Piqué played the 2006/07 season on loan at Real Zaragoza before returning to help the Manchester club win the Premier League and Champions League double in the 2007/08 season.
He has always stood out both in defence and attack, definitely a defender with a forward's instinct. Memorable goals like in the 2-6 at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium or strikes that form part of FC Barcelona's history books - he scored Barça's 1000th goal in international competition against Celtic in the Champions League game during the 2013/14 season.
Two celebrated goals from his 29 as a Barça player. In fact, he is Barça's second highest scoring defender, and the Club's highest scoring defender in the Champions League with 16 goals.
After 615 games - 396 in LaLiga, 126 in the Champions League, 65 in the Copa del Rey, 16 in the Spanish Super Cup, two in the European Super Cup, five in the Europa League and five in the World Club Cup - "all that kid’s dreams have come true". "It is the time to bring this journey to an end. I’ve always said that there will not be any other team after Barca. And that’s how it will be. This Saturday’s game will be my last at Spotify Camp Nou" concluded an emotional and legendary Gerard Piqué.
Piqué joined Barcelona’s ‘La Masia’ youth academy when he was 10 years old, playing for the under-age teams as a defensive midfielder but moved to Manchester United in 2004 and spent four years with the Red Devils before returning to the Catalan capital in 2008, with the club paying $5.5 million for his services with a season on-loan in between with Real Zaragoza.
“I have not said anything but I want to speak now.
“Like many of you, coming from a football family, I have always been a Barcelona fan. I did not want to be a footballer, I wanted to play for Barca.
“Recently, I have thought a lot about when I was younger, about what that Gerard would have thought if I told him he would fulfil all his dreams, that he would play for Barca and be a European and world champion.
“That he would play with the best players, that he would captain the club. … Football has given me everything, Barca have given me everything, you the fans have given me everything. And now my childhood dreams have been fulfilled, the moment has arrived to close this chapter.
“I have always said that after Barcelona there will be no other team and that is how it will be. Saturday will be my last game at Camp Nou.
“I will become another fan after, I will support the team and transmit my love for the club to my kids, like they did with me. And you know me, sooner or later I will be back. See you at Camp Nou. Visca Barca, always and forever.”
After the game against Almeria, Barcelona will travel next week to face Osasuna.
“For weeks there has been talk about me,” Pique said in a video posted on social media
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