The Magical Career of Gerard Pique

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After becoming a member of the Barcelona ranks at simply 10 years outdated earlier than a transfer to Manchester United the place he would make his skilled debut, Gerard Pique has referred to as it a day at 35 for his hometown membership. We’ll run by way of the sensational profession of the Spain legend right here.

Pique joined United when he left the Barcelona academy after Sir Alex Ferguson prized away certainly one of Spain’s greatest up-and-coming abilities. The centre-back solely performed 12 instances within the Premier League throughout 4 seasons, and 4 instances within the Champions League. Extremely, this noticed him rating two Champions League targets en path to United successful the competitors in 2008.

Pique’s few appearances within the Premier League additionally noticed him head again to Barcelona with a league title from England too, placing him in a uncommon class of gamers to win each La Liga and the Premier League.

Many think about the Barcelona facet of 2008-2012 to be the best soccer group of all time. Given how they gained two Champions Leagues and battered everybody in Spain, breaking numerous data within the course of, it’s exhausting to disagree.

What makes Pique’s time along with his boyhood membership extra spectacular isn’t just what number of titles he gained, however how he missed only a few video games throughout the seasons of their dominance.

In truth, 2011/12 and 2013/14 have been the one seasons he performed lower than 40 video games in all competitions, which sarcastically, have been two seasons the place Barcelona did not win the title of their glory years.

In whole, Pique gained three Champions League trophies with Barcelona after successful again the trophy in one other treble-winning marketing campaign in 2014/15.

The Barcelona legend additionally gathered eight league titles, successful 4 in a row and three in a row at phases, whereas additionally bagging himself seven Copa del Rey medals and 6 Supercopa de Espana titles too.

Along with his 102 caps being the identical because the legendary Raul, Pique sits because the eleventh most-capped participant in Spain historical past.

In truth, contemplating his profession spanned solely eight years with the nationwide group and far lower than the likes of David Silva and Andres Iniesta above him within the checklist, it means only a few gamers performed extra minutes than him throughout the years of 2009-2018.

What’s extra unbelievable is how this was Spain’s most profitable interval, as Pique performed on the again within the 2010 World Cup triumph, and the 2012 European Championship win.