World and European champion Gerard Piqué surprisingly ends his great career next weekend. The FC Barcelona player announced this to his 20 million Twitter followers on Thursday in a video with many pictures from his childhood. “In the past few weeks, a lot of people have been talking about me – now I’m talking myself,” said the 35-year-old. “I never wanted to be a footballer. I wanted to be a Barca player. What would little Gerard have thought if he knew that all his dreams would come true? That he would win every trophy he could think of? That he would be European and world champion would?”
Now he has decided to “bring this journey to an end. I’ve always said there will be no other team for me after Barca. And it stays that way.” His last game at the Camp Nou will be the league clash with UD Almeria on Saturday. Piqué won his last of 102 caps (5 goals) at the 2018 World Cup in Russia, but he was included in national coach Luis Enrique’s provisional squad for the finals in Qatar (from 20 November).
He will ‘be a normal fan’ in the future and pass on the love for Barca to his children, the Catalan said: “And sooner or later, you know me, I will come back.” Pique has played more than 600 professional games for FC Barcelona in 14 years, including winning the Champions League three times with the club.