Gerard Piqué At the age of 35, he completed an excellent season, performing at a high level, more than fulfilling on the pitch what is required of a footballer of his level and category. However, off the pitch, his performances are not so convincing to the point that he has become an uncomfortable topic of conversation between the coaching staff and the Barça presidential area on how to manage it.
The complexity of Piqué’s personality, accustomed to conducting himself according to his own criteria and his own personal and business needs, has generated various episodes of discomfort even with his own Xavi Hernandez. Sources close to the coaching staff say that the coach has asked him to be a better example, to adapt to the behavior guidelines of the group, to lower his profile as a loose verse, essential for a new coach who seeks to unite and compact the squad.
He hasn’t quite gotten away with it. Piqué has always considered that he knows how to compartmentalize, that he can perfectly combine his many hobbies with maximum performance on the pitch. In this sense, he is not without reason: for years Piqué has been diversifying his attentions without his performance, except for a few seasons, having suffered and, in fact, in this last campaign he has played very competently. The technical team led by Xavi has no complaints about it. On the contrary. Xavi himself considers the Catalan central defender to be the best of his defenses.
There is, therefore, an ambivalence towards his figure in FC Barcelona’s ground zero and Piqué, with his underlined personality, is not someone who is easy to make him change position. Not even for a person of Xavi’s affable nature and approachable character.
extra sports noise
An ambivalence that is transferred to the box, where satisfaction for their performance prevails and for their quick commitment every time a salary effort is demanded, but where their scattered life is not quite convincing either, in the sense that the not always positive noise of his business activities are inevitably associated with Barça. It would be very convenient for the presidency to dispense with his extremely high salary, lowered and extended four times in three years, but still very expensive to maintain for the fragile Barça economy.
Joseph Maria Bartomeu He signed the Catalan defender to a contract of 28 million per season before leaving the presidency, as revealed by Esport3 a few months ago. His agent knew how to squeeze the most out of a president who always tried to please the soccer players, without luck. With Piqué he did not end well, in view of some public reproaches from the defender. But his individualistic and hooligan character has not only angered presidents and coaches, but also teammates.
When, at the request of Bartomeu, he agreed to extend his contract to reduce the annual cost, and did so regardless of the group’s decision, Piqué found himself one day on the blackboard in the Barcelona dressing room with cruel graffiti against him.
adductor injury
The situation right now is not easy, as Piqué still has a contract (until 2024) and despite the injury that has separated him from the team in the last days of the League, a complex adductor injury, it has been shown that he can still offer high performance. He has, on top of that, a popular pull. And, as was said before, when Joan Laporta He asked for a commitment with his salary, he agreed.
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In addition, dispensing with him, in view of the club’s limited ability to go out on the market to find a replacement for him, would be understood as enormous sporting recklessness. And Piqué, in trouble in his personal life as he is well known, seems determined to continue.
Now him Barca He wants to reduce the salary mass of the first team considerably, as explained in Rac1 by the economic vice president Eduard Romeu. Go from the current 560 million to 400 million, in line with other big European clubs. And the salary of the captains and other heavyweights in the squad is once again in the spotlight. Among them that of Piqué, a character as valuable as it is difficult to manage.