None of this is to paint Pique as a saint. He isn't; he knows it and anyone who's on "Planet Pique" understands his fierce temper, his mulish stubbornness to say precisely what he wants, sometimes regardless of consequences. But this is a significant football man who's just produced a remarkable initiative that's worth stopping to consider and understand. You can bet your bottom dollar or 20 million of them that some top European players and agents are utterly horrified by what's happened.
Ferguson always knew that across his brilliant career, his innate ability to confront threatening problems, game them out in his mind and then fearlessly attack them having done actuarial calculations about possible consequences, consistently set him ahead of his most voracious domestic rival managers.
Pique has that, too. This is also the kid who, many years ago, revealed to the late Michael Robinson, that, as bored young teenagers, he and Cesc Fabregas used to nip down to the Barceloneta beachfront and pinch petrol caps off parked cars. This is also the guy who, on graduating from high school, partied with fellow alumni on a boat owned by the parents of one of his friends.
High spirits being what they are, and the parents being unaware of the impromptu party, the sizeable yacht was unmoored, revved up and heading out to sea when the coast guards intervened. I make no comment about the ring leaders, but if you address the subject of this column as Rear Admiral Pique, he'll know why.
I'd also be a liar if I didn't admit, again, that I was part Pique's most infamous "goal-net clipping" after the World Cup final, deep in the bowels of Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium. A rude, objectionable employee was lying about where the match nets were hidden and not only denying Spain's centre-half the chance to snip 'n save even a tiny section, but sneering at him too.
In one of the few demonstrably wise decisions of my life, I persuaded Gerard that negotiations were better than pugilism. These negotiations, over the past three weeks, have been complex, interesting and unique and on Sunday night, they yielded spectacular consequences. Many moons ago, interviewed by a Catalan radio journalist, Pique let slip the idea that one day, he expected to become President at Camp Nou, but recent business adventures were beginning, in my opinion, to suggest his ambition had changed its gaze.
It felt like esports, tennis, social media expansion, blockchain-supported fantasy football investment, film and documentary-making might all be starting to make his future-vision macro, not micro. Today, I'm not so sure. I think the prospect of running the club he loves still drives him. If he indeed becomes FC Barcelona president, I'd imagine that will be some considerable time in the future -- and against the advice of most of his close confidants.
Yet the recent evidence shows he's likely to do a far better job than between them Sandro Rosell, Josep Maria Bartomeu or this version of Joan Laporta have been capable. Remember the ill-conceived, sublimely selfish and embarrassingly announced Super League project via which Laporta is still umbilically tied to Florentino Perez? Who was the biggest Spanish footballer to come out and oppose the concept? Yeah, you guessed it. Skip to main content Skip to navigation.
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Ian Troyan talktous the Trending On The By David Moore. The Spanish defender celebrates with his son Milan after winning the Copa del Rey. Argos AO. Privacy Policy Feedback. It has become a sight as familiar as Barcelona lifting silverware.
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