Top Facts about Gerard Pique you probably didn’t know
As one of the bests in Barcelona, Gerard Pique is known as one of the best defenders in the world.
Born on 2 February 1987 in
Barcelona, Piqué started his football career in FC Barcelona’s youth teams as a defensive midfielder. However, later he chose
Manchester Unitedover Barcelona and decided to sign his first professional contract with the Red Devils.
His life story is full of surprises and so interesting. That's why we have decided to write about him a bit more. In case you want to know more about the Camp Nou star, join us reading this article.
Facts you need to know about Gerard Pique
Time to go through the facts…
Early life
Known as Gerard Pique, Gerard Piqué Bernabeu was born on February 2, 1987 in Barcelona, Spain. He was raised in a small Catalan family with his dad, mom and his younger brother Marc.
His father, Joan, is a businessman, and his mother, Montserrat, is the director of a spinal injuries hospital in Barcelona.
It is interesting to know that the 33-year-old is the grandson of Amador Bernabeu, who is a former vice-president of Barcelona.
Coma in childhood
Gerard was a meant to be a footballer from an early age and everyone could see the signs of his talent. He started kicking the ball the moment he started walking. However this passion was almost taking his life. This is the story…
One day when he was almost one year and half old and he was playing on the terrace of his grandparents’ home, the ball went over the terrace and the chasing Gerard Pique also fell with it.
As a result the brilliant Barcelona defender went into a coma, but thankfully he woke up after 2 days to be one of the bests in the future.
Bernabeu in his lastname
We all know that Bernabeu is set to be related to Real Madrid, after their legendary president, Santiago Bernabeu.
But the question is what is the name doing the one of the Barcelona member’s last name?! After all we all know about the old rivalry between the Madridistas and Catalans.
Interestingly the name comes from Pique’s mother’s side, who is the daughter of former Barcelona president, Amador Bernabeu. Amazing! Huh?!
Body Measurements
Going through the facts, it’s time to talk about the Spaniard appearances and body measurements. Pique is one of the tallest nad most handsome football players as he is 193 centimeters (6.4 inches) tall.
The good-looking star weights 87 Kg or 192.8 lbs and he’s got Blue eyes and Brown hair.
Gerard Pique Idols
It would be a tad bit surprising that Pique has the name of Real Madrid legend, Fernando Hierro in his idols list, as he himself is a legendary center-back.
However, when you think about it deeply, you will see that Hierro was a world class center-half in his day, which has inspired many defenders all around the world.
Professional life
Let’s talk about Pique’s professional life now.
Manchester United
We have mentioned before that Pique preferred to join Manchester United instead of Barcelona, after leaving Barcelona’s youth club.
He joined the Red Devils as a center back and made his debut for the team in October 2004, in a 3–0 League Cup victory at Crewe Alexandra. Though he was a substitute in that match, Gerard had the chance to make his full debut in January 2005 in a 0–0 FA Cup draw with Exeter City.
In February 2005, the Red Devils signed him a new contract which was set to be expired in summer of 2009 as his performance was notably brilliant.
However, on 4 August 2006 Pique joined Real Zaragoza for a season-long loan.
After returning to Old Trafford, Piqué's made nine more league appearances during the 2007–08 season. In his first start in the
UEFA Champions League, a 4–0 home win against Dynamo Kyiv on 7 November 2007, Piqué scored the first of Manchester United's four goals in that match and doing so, he became the 450th player to score at least one goal for the club.
Return to Barcelona
Finally, on 27 May 2008, Piqué signed a four-year contract with Barcelona, with a €5 million buy-out clause. He was so excited about re-signing with Barcelona, though he admitted he had a good time at Manchester United.
In the following year and on 13 May 2009, he picked up the first trophy of his Barcelona career as he helped his club to a 4–1 victory over
Athletic Bilbaoin the Copa del Rey Final.
Three days later, Barcelona clinched the league title after Real Madrid lost 3–2 to Villarreal, with two games left in the season.
Pique signed a contract extension to stay at
Barcelona
until at least summer 2015 on 26 February 2010.
Interestingly, on 28 May 2011, Piqué played in his second Champions League Final where Barca defeated Pique’s former team, Man Utd, 3–1 at Wembley Stadium to lift the European Cup for the second time in three seasons.
Later in 2014, It was time for another contract extension with Barcelona, which kept Pique at the club until 2019. This contract was signed on 20 May 2014.
Pique achieved his next honor with the Blaugranas on 6 June 2015, where the incredible defender started for Barba in the 2015
UEFA Champions League Final
.
The club won its fifth European Cup by beating Juventus at Berlin's Olympiastadion in that match. This victory made Barcelona the first club in history to win the treble of domestic league, domestic cup and European Cup twice.
It is interesting to know that Piqué, Messi, Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Dani Alves and Pedro are the only players to have been a part of both treble-winning teams.
On 18 January 2018, Piqué extended his contract again, this time until 2022 and so the star is still kicking the ball for his childhood club.
International career
Now let’s take a look at the big star’s international career form the beginning to retirement.
Youth teams
He started his international career for Spain U16 team in 2002 and then moving forward he kicked the ball for U14, U19, U20, U21 and then adult’s team. Being in under-19 team, his side won the 2006 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Poland.
One year later and in 2007, he played in the FIFA U-20 World Cup, and scored a goal in their 4–2 victory against Brazil in the round of 16. However, at the quarter-final he missed a decisive penalty against the Czech Republic, and as the result Spain were eliminate from the competition.
Senior career
Finally, in February 2009, Spain senior squad called up Pique and he joined the team in a friendly match against England on 11 February.
Interestingly one year later and in South Africa 2010 World Cup, Pique’s life was totally changed as he met his soulmate there. During the tournament pique was Spain's first-choice center back to play along Puyol and finally his team won the competition, defeating the Netherlands 1–0 in the final.
Two years passed and then it was time for the young star to shine in the UEFA Euro 2012. Piqué played every minute of the tournaqment campaign along Sergio Ramos and helped the team to win the semi-final match against Portugal as he converted the team's third penalty into a goal. The final match was another sweet victory for La Roja as they recorded their fifth consecutive clean sheet in a 4–0 win over Italy. The 33-year-old player continued shining all through his career and eventually on August 11, 2018, he officially announced his retirement. Gerard is still an integral member of his FC Barcelona team.
Piquenbauer
As you may know, Beckenbauer is one of the legendary footballers, known as “Der Kaiser”. The 74-year-old is considered as one of the greatest players in history and one of the best football defenders in the world.
It did not take much long for Pique to be noticed after the beginning of his career in Barcelona and under Pep Guardiola’s supervision, he got better and better every day. Such a development was the reason for media to link him with the legendary Franz Beckenbauer. Eventually, this gave pique a new nickname: Piquenbauer.
Pique's Favorite Singers
There is no doubt that we all may have different tastes in things, including our favorite kind of music and that is not different in Gerard Pique.
Though you may all expect Pique to be a fan of his soulmate, Shakira, well, he is not. In fact, his favorite singers are U2, Lady Gaga and Rihanna.
Love story
As we have mentioned before, Gerard Pique is currently in a relationship with the love of his life, Shakira, who is exactly 10 years older than him. In fact, interestingly they both share the same birthday which is on February 2, but one in 1987 and the other one in 1977.
The two lovebirds met each other for the first time back in 2010 FIFA World Cup, where Shakira was filming the music video for "Waka Waka”, known as “This time for Africa”, and Gerard was with Spain national team.
However, their relationship was not confirmed till one year later when the 33-year-old star joined the sexy singer onstage at her concert in Spain.
Again, one year passed and this time Shakira revealed her pregnancy by posting a photo on Instagram in September 2012.
Milan Piqué Mebarak, was born on January 22, 2013 and then 2 years later their second child, Sasha Piqué Mebarak, was born on January 29, 2015.
It has to be mentioned that the couple are not married yet, though it seems like they are deeply in love; but why? In fact, Shakira opened up about this question in the couple's 60 Minutes interview in early 2020.
"To tell you the truth, marriage scares the shit out of me. I don't want him to see me as the wife. I'd rather him see me as his girlfriend", said the 43-year-old singer and dancer.
"His lover, his girlfriend. It's like a little forbidden fruit, you know? I wanna keep him on his toes. I want him to think that anything's possible depending on behavior."
Business interests
Football is not all that matters to Pique as he has shown his interest in other business projects as well.
“Kosmos is reimagining yesterday's sports and media businesses for the audiences of tomorrow. Merging sports, media, and entertainment innovation, Kosmos invests in impactful ventures that challenge the status quo”.
This is what has been written on Kosmos Holding homepage and who do you think the founder of this holding is? Yea! That’s eight.
Back in 2017 Pique started this holding with the help of Hiroshi Mikitani, who is the Chairman and CEO of Rakuten. The Barca star is also the owner of Spanish football club FC Andorra, which he bought in December 2018.
However, that was not the end for his ownerships as in 2019, he took over a majority stake in Gimnàstic Manresa, which is another Spanish football club.
Net Worth and Salary
Pique has been number 19 in the list of Highest-paid players in 2017, gathered by Forbes. However, as of 2020, there has been many different numbers on his salary and Net worth, but according to Celebrity Net Worth, Pique's current estimated net worth is $40 million.
In addition, he is still one of the highest paid defenders in the world with a salary of £165,000 per week. This is while Shakira’s net worth is reportedly $300 million.
Endorsements
Next item is the charming star’s endorsements. According to Forbes’ same report, Gerard Pique earned $3 million from his endorsements in 2017 and his major sponsor is Nike.
Generosity and charity work
Like many other famous stars, Pique believes that things are bigger for being shared and so this is the guideline in his life.
Interestingly, he and Shakira did one of the most beautiful things they could do, during the birth of their second child back in 2015.
In fact they couple dedicated the baby shower to UNICEF and Pique urged his fans to buy thank-you to raise funds for vaccination of children around the world.
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