Gerard Pique announces his retirement

Gerard Pique has announced he will be retiring from football after Barcelona’s final game before the season breaks for the World Cup this Saturday. 

The Spanish defender, who has enjoyed 14 glittering years with the club having re-joined them in 2008, will play his last game against Almeria at the Camp Nou this weekend. 

It is set to bring the curtain down on one of the great modern Spanish careers, with Pique having formed a key part of a number of great Barcelona teams in addition to having won two European Championships and the World Cup with the national side. 

Posting a video on Instagram announcing the news, captioned ‘Culers, I have something to tell you’, Pique was filmed at various Barcelona landmarks including the Camp Nou as he narrates message to the club’s supporters – or ‘culers’. 

‘Culers, I have something to tell you. The last months, weeks, lots have been talking about me. 

‘Until now, I haven’t said anything. But now, I want to be the one talking about me. Like many of you, I’ve always been a Barca fan. I was born into a football-loving family of Barca fans,’ he says on the video released on social media. 

‘From a very young age, I did not want to become a football player, I wanted to play for Barca. I have been thinking a lot about that kid lately, about what little Gerard would have thought had all his dreams come true. 

‘That he would make it to the Barca first team, that he would win every trophy possible. That he would become a European champion and world champion. That he would play alongside some of the best players in history, and captain the club and make friends for life. 

‘It has been 25 years since I joined Barca, I left and I came back. Football has given me everything. I have always said that I would not be in any other team after I left Barca, and that is how it will be.

‘This Saturday’s game will be my last at Camp Nou. I will become a regular fan. I will support the team. I will pass my love for Barca to my children, like my family did with me. And you know me, sooner or later, I’ll be back. 

‘I’ll see at the Camp Nou. Long live Barca. Always.’ 

Having joined the club at the age of five, Pique went on to become one of the great defenders in the club’s history. Alongside Carlos Puyol and later Javier Mascherano, Pique formed the bedrock of a side that conquered all in front of them in Europe and domestically.