Gerard Pique announces he's leaving Barcelona and retiring from football | OneFootball

Gerard Pique is set to retire from professional football having announced that he’s leaving Barcelona in an emotional video on Thursday afternoon.

While it’s been clear for a few seasons now that Pique is no longer the player he once was, it’s nevertheless come as quite the shock that he’s suddenly hanging up his boots for good.

The World Cup winner took to social media this week to release a touching video that showed just how deep his love for the Blaugrana truly is.

Pique announces his retirement

Featuring many a clip of him adorning the blue and red stripes as a kid, it really puts into context just how great of an achievement it’s been for Pique to live out his childhood dream.

And the crescendo of the video saw Pique explain that his final game at Camp Nou will come this weekend as Barca host Almeria in their penultimate La Liga clash ahead of the World Cup.

Pique also explains that there could be no other club for him aside from his beloved Barcelona, hence the assertion that the Spaniard was also announcing his retirement from the sport, full stop.

If that doesn’t make you feel emotional, then we don’t know what would, because it couldn’t be any clearer just how much it meant to Pique to play for his boyhood club.

It is, after all, the dream of so many young boys and girls to one day pull on the jersey of the club that they’d been cheering on from the stands and in their living rooms as soon as they could talk.

What did Pique achieve in his career?

Pique is one of the greatest male defenders of the 21st century, winning pretty much everything there is to win in the professional game.

Winners’ medals for the World Cup, European Championship, La Liga, Premier League, Champions League, FIFA Club World Cup, Copa del Rey and more all take pride of place in Pique’s trophy cabinet.

Manchester United, for whom he registered a modest 23 appearances.

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Pique also amassed more than 100 caps for Spain and when you throw in a brief loan spell at Real Sociedad for good measure, then you have the full architecture of a truly stunning career.

The 35-year-old was named in the UEFA Team of the Year on five occasions, featured in the FIFA FIFPRO World XI four times and was named La Liga Best Defender for the 2009/10 campaign.

We wish Pique all the very best in his retirement and we just know that there won’t be a single dry eye in the house when he takes to the Camp Nou turf for the very last time this weekend.

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