Gerard Piqué (35) plays with everything and everyone.
He had done it a week ago, at the time of his surprising goodbye, with treachery and nocturnality, by launching a self-edited video (only his inner circle was aware of the decision).
And he did it again yesterday, also with treachery and at night, at the end of his last day as a Blaugrana, when he appeared on the Ibai Llanos Twitch channel, bypassing the traditional media.
-I haven't spoken to the press for a long time, I haven't since the season started -said the former Blaugrana central defender, before starting to play with Internet users, because he immediately announced that today (20 hours) he will launch a digital project (a project that will never specified: it is an online football platform).
-They are talking about your future as president (of Barça).
"At some point I'll feel like it. I don't have it in my head right now. I want many other things. I will enjoy not spending every day playing or training. But yes, in the future I hope to be able to give all my potential to the club of my life.
– And why have you decided to retire in November?
-People already know that I started the season with a meeting with the coach in which he told me that this year it would be difficult. I wanted to try it, but the sensations from the beginning of the season were not the best and I saw that the break was the opportunity to make that decision. The fact that there were injuries to my position caused all of this to be delayed. The truth is that I would have left earlier. There were times when I was about to walk into the locker room and say, 'It's over. But they started to get injured and I saw that I couldn't leave the team at that time. In the end, this break was the moment because the injured were going to recover.
–The footballer tone is over. You can answer in another way – Llanos told him.
-It's true, I've been talking like that since I was 17 years old but now I'm free and I don't have to answer what I have to. But yesterday I didn't shit on anyone's mother (by referee Gil Manzano). In the middle part, after the arbitration that harmed us, I went to tell him in the locker room tunnel that “you are always the same and you always harm us”, and then he expelled me. I didn't say anything and he expelled me. Then, already expelled, I entered our locker room and a colleague said the phrase: 'Shit in the fucking mother...'. He said it inside and the referee heard it from his locker room and put the words in my mouth.
– And now, with the sanction?
-Imagine that I sign for Atlético and I fulfill them, I train with Simeone, something that someone insinuated... well, that's impossible. It is unfeasible that he ever wears the shirt of another team than Barça. But Atlético... The referees here lack empathy, and there is no way to talk with them. In England it is not like that.
–But your goodbye had been on Saturday, right?
-I have always hated goodbyes and I would have liked to leave without further ado. And on Saturday I was very happy and Barça has been very good and this year we are there to compete in the League.
–Are you among Luis Enrique's pre-selected players?
-That's what they told me. The truth is that I don't know anything.
-If they call you for the World Cup, would you go?
–I don't know when the final list will come out (it comes out tomorrow, Friday). I haven't even thought about it.
–And would you like to see Sergio Ramos in the national team?
-You have to measure what is said a lot. It is not our role to say who goes or not.
–And have you felt loved at Barça?
-I think that in current football, due to the ecosystem, the players are very distanced from everything, from the press and the supporter. We should find a way to get closer, and it's not easy because players want protection so they can just focus on playing. I have realized that I have screwed up many times. Although the word shit is not correct either. The key is context. If you isolate a phrase, over time you say: 'What a barbarity I said'. As for example with Arbeloa (he called him 'known').
"Then everything went too far," Llanos said.
-You are right. Common sense was always there, but in the Madrid-Barcelona distance, conflicts could not be resolved. We did not achieve it until we met in the selection to talk about it in person.
–And how do you understand the criticism in the Madrid newspapers?
-You make me fun. You must understand that you are part of the show. And people like what happens off the pitch more. People don't watch 90 minutes. They are on mobile, and then they return to the game for two minutes and again on mobile. The coming generations are more interested in salseo than ball control. I see it in my children.
