After the Champions League draw paired Barcelona with Manchester United, Gerard Pique was quick to tweet that he was ‘coming back to my second home’.
Given that the husband of Shakira, whose name almost as synonymous with Catalonia as Pep Guardiola’s, had only spent four years at Old Trafford it may have raised a few quizzical eyebrows.
A look through Pique’s iTunes however, would quickly banish any doubts that a piece of the 32-year-old’s heart will always be Mancunian.
Gerard Pique will be back in familiar settings on Wednesday when Barcelona face Man United
The Barca defender is gearing up to face his old club in the Champions League quarter-finals
He spent four years at Old Trafford after leaving Barca for United as a teenager in 2004
The centre half is a fan of The Stone Roses, James and Oasis. While there is, bizarrely, a Stone Roses bar in Barcelona, it is fairly safe to say that there will not be many in the Nou Camp dressing room who share a similar taste. But Manchester means more to a man who made more than 100 appearances for Spain and 10 for Catalonia. It is the place where he became a man.
It is a curious tale. How did a teenage Pique, a treasured product of the famous La Masia, even end up in Cottonopolis? The answer is simple. In England, players could be offered a contract at 16, which was not the case in Spain. It left many of La Liga’s brightest prospects vulnerable to foreign rivals. A similar mechanism saw Arsenal lure Cesc Fabregas away from the prospect of a career at the Nou Camp.
At the time, Sir Alex Ferguson was delighted, having cast his net further than the traditional heartlands to put United’s youth recruitment into a strong position. As Roses front man Ian Brown famously remarked: ‘It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at,’ and a similar ideology was used by Ferguson’s scouting operation. Brown also said that Manchester had everything except for a beach. That eventually became part of the problem.
In a revealing interview last year, Pique spoke of how his time at United transformed him. He puts much of the credit for that down to Ferguson and some of the big characters in a United dressing room full of them.
The 32-year-old has spoken in the past of how his time at United transformed him
Pique recounted a story of one of his first matches for the first team and of how he was sat in a dressing room full of stars feeling nervous when a phone (his) started vibrating and Roy Keane, furious, launched an animated search for it.
‘His eyes are darting everywhere and he’s trying to figure it out,’ he said. ‘You know the famous scene with Jack Nicholson in The Shining when he bursts through the door? That’s what he looked like.’ Finally Pique confessed ‘He went nuts in front of everybody,’ he added. ‘It was incredible – I almost s*** myself. But it was a good lesson.’
It says much that perhaps the biggest accolade from Pique’s stint in Manchester actually comes from Keane himself. Given the Irishman’s frank nature, a description of ‘a good lad and a good player’ is about as good as it gets. In his autobiography, Keane reflected that Pique simply was not getting a run of games and wanted to go back to Barcelona.
‘He’s done alright there,’ he wrote, before adding: ‘I don’t think anyone could have predicted how much he would achieve. This theory that he is not a good defender – he is one of the best. He knows how to defend.’
Occurring the wrath of then-United captain Roy Keane proved to be a valuable lesson for Pique
Pique describes the phone incident as ‘one of a thousand mistakes’ he made while at Old Trafford. He admits to grappling with the language, culture and loneliness. The isolation he describes was debilitating. While the damp Manchester climate is often the subject of predictable jokes the reality can be harsh on locals, let alone those who have come from sunnier climes. Coming home from training at 4pm in winter when it is already dark and heading to your own flat is a test of anyone’s resolve, let alone a teenager plucked from his family thousands of miles away.
Pique lauded Ferguson as his ‘second father’, and revealed that the Scot had promised him 25 games in the 2007-8 season. The end, however, came in Bolton. A brutally honest Pique has spoken of a fateful afternoon against Nicolas Anelka which would eventually trigger his departure. Trying to be aggressive, he went for a header and missed the ball completely. Anelka scored and United lost 1-0.
‘It was my fault,’ he admitted. ‘I had lost the faith of Sir Alex.’ The YouTube footage is grainy, which is probably for the best.
Pique has described the mistake as ‘the best thing to happen in my life’ because of what followed. The end came after 23 appearances and while his role may not have been central, he did head back to Catalonia with Champions League, Premier League, League Cup and Community Shield medals.
Pique’s spell at United saw his honours include the Champions League and Premier League
While more than 10 years have passed since his return home, Pique is remembered fondly at Carrington as a player who, despite his change in environment and tender years, had a mischievous side. This appears to have been borne out by a grim tale from Patrice Evra, who last year disclosed that after the youngster had set his new trainers on fire he returned the favour by going to the toilet in his shoes.
When Pique tweets about his second home, he means it. While Oasis may be among his favourites he would never kick a ball for the Gallagher brothers’ beloved City, even with Guardiola in charge. When the ex-Barcelona boss, who enjoyed incredible success at the Nou Camp with Pique in the heart of his defence took over at the Etihad, Pique was asked if he would fancy a reunion. ‘My love for Manchester United is too great for me to sign for City,’ he said. ‘Even though Pep is a great coach.’ The message was clear.
‘Nice lad – big and daft,’ remembers one Carrington source. ‘He was always in the thick of things. He came from a good family and was very switched on, despite him enjoying a practical joke.’
When United toured America and faced Barcelona in Washington DC in 2011, Pique made a beeline for staff and ex-team-mates. ‘He remembered pretty much everyone of the staff’s name,’ the insider added. ‘It was really impressive and spoke volumes of him.’
Pique’s manners were encapsulated in a letter he wrote to United’s fans when he left in which he was at pains to thank those who had helped him, starting with the football equipment manager, masseuse and secretaries. ‘I will always carry United in my heart,’ he added.