Shocking news yesterday with Piqué's announcement. But on the other hand it was predictable. For his club, the situation was very clear, since they did not have him. Only the ability of a player is what can prove that this statement is wrong. But someone's capacity is always directly proportional to the dose of illusion, concentration and dedication of him. And there Piqué was at a disadvantage. His age, his titles and successes, his physical ailments and his complex personal situation all played against him. And when one is clear that something cannot be, it is better to lower expectations and abandon.
Surely I will have been one of the people who has laughed the least thanks. But I have always been very respectful and admirer of Piqué as a player. It would be absurd if it were not so because few defenders have his baggage. Very complete in many aspects, he was able to redirect a career that had not just started in England, where nobody believed in his style of play. It is true that she was lucky enough to end up at Guardiola's Barcelona and that she was accompanied by apprenticeship with Puyol.
Piqué has been one of the best defenders in the history of Spanish football. To his technical qualities we must add his soccer intelligence, his goalscoring ability, his leadership on the field, his leading role in important games and the number of games he has played overcoming pain. A compendium of complex qualities to obtain in a footballer and more in a defender. All this is true that he developed in a team made up of players of the highest level. But he was also part of the best Spanish team ever.
Technically exquisite, he has been the defender who has best known how to drive the ball to the center of the field to divide the rival defensive system. Capable of facing predictably faster players through his cunning, heading finishers both to defend and to score goals due to his intuition of where the ball will go. It is difficult to find fault with it on the ground, something perhaps as difficult as not knowing how to find fault with it outside of it.
His leadership has also been evident. The more complex and tense a match could be, the more comfortable he seemed. Difficulties have always been challenges for him, feeding on controversies generated by him to strengthen himself. Although that personality, which in this aspect has given him a lot, has also taken away from him. Little integrated into the group unless everything rolled towards his environment, I imagine that many coaches will have had enough of him. But even so, not one has dared to rule out his services. Which is clear evidence of his football contribution.
