It took him two minutes to leave the Camp Nou pitch. Emotionally broken, shaken and moved because more than 92,000 culés, the best entry of the season, gave themselves to him. He was going slowly, walking as if he never wanted to leave that grass. He left as if he were floating, embracing, one by one, all his teammates, with a smile, not at all wide, while that stadium, already old and with little time to live, stood up, shuddering at the emotion that overwhelmed everyone. . It was a simple farewell, but full of magic because it connected him emotionally with his people. He left with thousands of culés chanting his name (“Piqué, Piqué, Piqué! & rdquor;) and, of course, his nickname:“ Piquembauer, Piquembauer, Piquembauer & mldr;! & rdquor ;.
“I had never thought of leaving. You always think of one more year, I did not think of retiring. These 6 months have been very, very difficult. Today it has been a liberation to say goodbye like this. I have taken a weight off my shoulders”
I hammered, player of the Barça
“I had never thought about leaving. You always think about one more year, I didn’t think about retiring. These 6 months have been very, very difficult. Today it has been a liberation to say goodbye like this. I have taken a weight off myself”, the player has confessed to DAZN after the popular tribute he received from the Camp Nou.
At that moment (10:43 p.m.) on a routine Saturday in the League, on November 5, 2022, time stopped. He was frozen when the fourth referee raised the electronic sign with his number, 3, also indicating the entry of Christensen. Gerard was on the right side forming a couple with Marcos Alonso when he understood, now, that it was time. The moment of goodbye after 616 matches with the Barça shirt, with which he won 30 titles.
Something got in our eye ?#Sempr3 ?❤️ pic.twitter.com/HRyqQy7lNo
— FC Barcelona (@FCBarcelona_es) November 5, 2022
“With so much love and so much passion between Barça and me, it is time to leave us a space, to leave us a little air. I am convinced that in the future I will return”
I hammered, player of the Barça
There was a match. And thousands of small Piquénian matches, which caused the best entrance of the Camp Nou gathering up to 92,605 culés, all of them gathered to say goodbye to a singular player. A tall, elegant, modern, irreverent defender with an extraordinary reading of the game. He wasn’t fast, but he was because his mind travels at breakneck speed.
owner and captain
Piqué left as a starter, embedded in the center of the defense forming a couple with Marcos Alonso, a central defender who was not until he came to Barça to be a left-back, but he has seen Balde and Alba pass him by. Gerard, who was tired of seeing what was happening in the locker room and on the field, where he became a relic, ran out of patience, devised an emotional video to change a tortuous past for an exciting future.
On Thursday he announced to Barcelona that he was leaving, avoiding the club’s official channels, thus showing his discomfort without even having to raise his voice, and on Saturday he took center stage. An old stadium, about to collapse, shuddered as soon as he saw him leave through the locker room tunnel with the captain’s armband wrapped around his left arm, while the rest of his teammates wore the jacket with Piqué’s 3.
The ball wasn’t even rolling yet and the culé people gave themselves unconditionally to the same footballer with whom they raged not even two weeks ago after his dramatic mistake against Inter. But Barça was above minutiae like that, understanding and glossing as the historical figure of a unique center-back deserved.
surrounded by his family
Unique in the field. Unique outside. Unique in all his gestures. There was, for example, not a single member of his family in the presidential box at the stadium. They were all, including his children Milan and Sasha, from whom he separated only during the 90 minutes of the game. With them he came to the field. And with them he went.
Before getting into the locker room, Piqué agreed to a deserted and lonely Camp Nou. It was still closed. He walked up the stairs and looked at Gerard at the bleachers. He panned as if he wanted to capture in his memory the last images of his temple. There was no one. Him and his world. The man who didn’t want to be a footballer. He just wanted to be a Barça player. He managed to get away with it because he established himself with an unusual regularity in the elite for almost three decades, demonstrating that his mind, privileged, curious, was going to transform him into a legend.
Manted by his peers
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After the game, he was beaten by his teammates, in addition to starting the lap of honor, unable to hide his emotion. He could not. He didn’t want to either. There are no precedents for such a goodbye at the Camp Nou. He was alone with the stadium illuminated by the flashlights of mobile phones transformed into a monumental television set with a farewell video, that goal at the Bernabéu that was 2-6, those Champions, those moments. And then there was silence at the Camp Nou.
“Good night culers”, began by saying the still Barça captain, listing “colleagues, technical staff, board of directors” before putting the focus, although he had to interrupt his speech due to emotion, in the arguments of his goodbye. “With so much love and so much passion between Barça and me, it is time to leave us a space, to leave us a little air. I am convinced that in the future I will return. My grandfather made me a partner the day I was born. This is not a goodbye. Here I was born and here I will die. Visit Barca!”