On Thursday, the FC Barcelona player, Gerard Piqué, surprised the world of football by announcing that he will play his last game on Saturday against Almería for matchday 13 of La Liga Santander.
Through a video published on his social networks, Piqué hinted that the reason would be the constant criticism he has received in recent months for his performances on the field of play.
However, the Spaniard is retiring at a difficult time for the Blaugrana team defensively. Ronald Araujo and Sergi Roberto are out due to injury, while the rest of the defenders have just joined due to medical leave.
In this way, this seems to be the least propitious moment for an experienced central defender to announce his retirement and this is something that would usually lead a player to compensate the club.
Therefore, the doubt arises will Gerard Piqué have legal problems for retiring from FC Barcelona in the middle of the season? In this particular case, the answer is negative. The #3 of the Catalans leaves by mutual agreement with the club, that is, the board has accepted it.
In fact, the very president of Barcelona, Joan Laporta, has applauded Gerard’s action and in the first statements about it, he commented: “Piqué is part of the Barça shield, he has achieved everything with the club”.
Thus, despite losing a veteran center-back like Piqué, Barcelona will see the exit on the positive side, since it will free up a good portion of its wage bill and save at least $50 million set in the contract that Piqué has renounced. own player.
Piqué will play the World Cup?
In the video in which he announces his retirement, Gerard Piqué reported that he is definitively saying goodbye to football despite having been part of the preliminary list of 55 players for the Qatar 2022 World Cup.
At the moment his absence from the World Cup is not official, what is certain according to his words is that this Saturday, November 5, will be his last match at club level.