Gerard Piqué only needed one year to take his most personal project, the Kings League, to the top. In twelve months of existence they have achieved mix football and entertainment to create a unprecedented phenomenon and fill some of the most important stadiums in the country, such as the Camp Nou, the Metropolitan or the Rosaleda. To close 2023, a Palau Sant Jordi with almost all tickets sold, will host this Saturday the Final Four of the Kingdom Cup, the first mixed football competition.
For the first time, women and men will play together for a championship, the Kingdom Cup. And as until now – during the month in which the previous phase of the tournament has been played – the women’s team will play the first half, and the men’s team, the second. In the case of penalties, it will be a draw that decides whether they or they start taking them.
Móstoles, XBuyer, Kunisport and Porcinos They are the four finalists of the Kingdom Cup. Football, as is usual in Kosmos events, will be accompanied by a lot of ‘show’ and the latest musical hits. The Tyets, Íñigo Quintero, Beret and RVFV –who will enter the stage doing ‘bungee jumping‘- will be the protagonists of the first finals in an ‘indoor’ setting.
Assault on the big stages
“It we have had everything in our face this year. They are very beautiful experiences,” he explains. Aleix Massegú, from Móstoles, to EL PERIÓDICO after winning in the quarterfinals. “I really enjoy these settings. Going out and seeing so many people is very nice. The Palau allows more ‘show’, spotlights and lights. Be more similar to the NBA, as Gerard Piqué likes,” he adds.
The Palau Sant Jordi is an extra motivation for the footballers, accustomed to the Cupra Arena. “I like play on big stages. If we have competed in these quarterfinals it is because We are excited to arrive at the Palau“, confirms to this newspaper Mari Paz Vilas, a Porcinas player, who also appears as Valencia’s all-time top scorer.
Melanie Serrano She opted for the Queens League project after almost two decades dressed as a Barça player, where she was the winner of Barça’s first Champions League. “I have experienced matches in very beautiful and important settings throughout my career and the public is a very important incentive to win. We wait see a full Palau Sant Jordi”, affirms the player in statements to EL PERIÓDICO. “It motivates me a lot to be able to see 15,000 people, or whatever they are on Saturday, enjoying our games,” Sergi Aguilar, the Kunisports goalkeeper, tells this newspaper after agonizing quarters, with up to 9 errors.
“It is rare to play a mixed competition, no one is used to it and we had to adapt,” acknowledges Massegú. Although, in the last month, Porcinos and Kunisports have managed to stop feeling the team as two different disciplines and see the club as one. “It is very exciting as a team, we fight as a unit and regardless of whether it is feminine or masculine. It would be Porcinos’ victory,” Vilas recalls. “We have done well, I didn’t expect it. She’s coming out great,” Aguilar says.
The Kings League phenomenon
The competition created by Kosmos has quickly received the support of many fans, especially Generation Z. “In the Kings League either you adapt to constant change, or you end up dying“recalls Aleix, Móstoles player. “He’s growing. It started out very strong and may now be plateauing a bit. But it will be fine because always there are new ideas and proposals“, Add.
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Adapting is difficult for many footballers during the first weeks, due to the countless changes in a single match. “my head explodes. I haven’t gotten used to it yet, but people like it precisely because of this format. Any team can win“, confesses Mari Paz Vilas, from Porcinos. “At first it was all very new, it had nothing to do with the format that I knew, but now I am very comfortable,” says Melanie Serrano.
Although they brought together many ‘haters’ at the beginning, they have established themselves as a phenomenon. And before closing the year at the Palau Sant Jordi, they received the Ondas Award for ‘The best entertainment program’. “It is a recognition that what we do is being liked by the public,” concludes Aguilar. “It is a reward for all those who They bet on this before those who did not believe. We personally have ‘freaked out’,” explains Vilas. “In the case of the Queens League, it has been a second chance for some players who had left football and now have had the opportunity to return,” he concludes.