Gerard Pique retirement: 4 reasons behind his sudden retirement from Football?

Last night, very big news broke out in the footballing world as Barcelona legend Gerard Pique announced his retirement from the game. He said that this weekend’s match against Almeria would be the last match in his career. 

Retiring in the middle of the season must have been very tough for him, but he had to make this decision due to the circumstances, and many reasons justify his sudden announcement.

Lack of game time

This season, Barca signed 2 of the best centre-backs in the world, Jules Kounde and Andreas Christensen, and since they arrived, Pique has been tumbling down the pecking order for the starting lineup. This is because, at the moment, he is the 5th choice centre back, behind the likes of Araujo, Kounde, Garcia and Christensen. Despite this, he convinced Xavi that he would try to break into the team, but due to his age and the quality of the other centre-backs, he was unsuccessful in doing so.

Struggles in personal life

The Spanish player has been dealing with a lot of personal life struggles recently because, in the summer, he got separated from his life partner, Shakira. That has been heavily affecting him mentally and physically, as can be seen in his performances. Hence, it would come to a stage where he couldn’t deal with everything at once and needed to take a break.

Club did not want him

FC Barcelona have been struggling financially in recent years, and mainly due to their astronomical amount of wages will and due to their wage, they had to let some of their best players leave the club, the likes of Lionel Messi, Antoine Griezmann, and Luis Suarez in the list. And now it’s the same for Gerard cause even though he is on very high wages, and now that he has left the club, it is widely reported in the media that Barca would save around 30 Million due to Pique being retired. 

His Business Empire

Apart from being a football player, Gerard is involved in several businesses, the most famous of which is the Davis Cup. He has also said in the past that one day he wants to become the President of FC Barcelona, and at the end of his retirement video, he clearly stated that “He will be back”.

All in all, the Spanish center-back has been one of the best defenders of all time and the world will miss his presence.

Pique’s Last Game for Barcelona

Gerard Pique’s last game for Barcelona occurred on 5th November 2022, a La Liga match against Almeria. Hence, the day also becomes important for Barcelona and will be remembered as Gerard Pique’s retirement date.

Luckily, in this game, Barcelona was able to give its hero a great farewell by comfortably winning the match 2-0. Ousmane Dembele and Frenkie De Jong emerged as the scorers of the two goals in the second half of the game.

Gerard Pique’s last game at Camp Nou was a soldout, where everything surrounding the game Pique, including the Barca players wearing shirts that carried the word “Sempr3”, which means “Forever” in Catalonian, with Pique’s number 3 replacing the letter E.

Gerard Pique Retirement Speech

Gerard Pique gave a heartwarming retirement speech at Camp  Nou during his last game as a professional footballer. He said. “First of all, thanks to all my teammates, coaching staff, club employees… to everyone who makes the day-to-day at the club easier,” he began. “Thanks to the board of directors for all these years. In life, as you grow older, sometimes to love is to let go [starts crying]… A relationship of so much love, so much passion, I think it is the moment to give ourselves some space.” 

 “That is why I think it is the right moment to go, because I love this club. I am convinced that I will be back in the future. This is not a goodbye, I left when I was 17 and I came back.”

“My grandad made me a member when I was born. I was born here, and I will die here.”

Gerard Pique’s retirement speech was met with great applause and loud cheers from the home and even the away supporters. Gerard Pique will always be remembered as a club legend.