Earlier this year, a call was leaked that made the headlines. The call was between Luis Rubiales, President of the Royal Spanish Football Federation, a fancy Spanish way of saying the head of FA, with the director and founder of Kosmos Management, a sporting agency, Gerard Pique. The pair congratulated each other over a deal constructed with Saudi Arabia to play the Spanish Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. Sounds normal until you learn about the details.

Pique's Shady Business

El Confidencial newspaper got hold of leaked documents from the Royal Spanish Football Federation which included the aforementioned call. The problems weren't with the deal itself as players involved in the business have become a norm. But, what the documents show is that Barcelona would get 8 million for each year they'd feature in the Super Cup, Real Madrid would get a similar amount, as for the other two teams, one would get 1 million and the other would get 2, depending on their ranking in the table. The Royal Spanish Football Federation would get 6 million, and finally, Kosmos Management would get 4 million.

Gerard Pique would be getting a total of 24 million from the 6-year-long deal. That's half of what Barcelona as a whole would get, the same as Real Madrid. Also, it's more than what the other two teams would get combined. That's a large amount of money, that's why Luis Rubiales helped Pique pressure the Saudis into paying him such a large amount and then tried to hide it because being a broker and making a few deals isn't enough of a reason to be making such a large sum of money.

There's a whole transcript of the pair conspiring which you can read about here

After the leak, there were more. Ramos was asking Rubiales' help to win the 2020 Ballon d'Or. Another was Pique again asking Rubiales to postpone the match between Romania because his company, Kosmos Management, was organizing the Davis Cup for tennis, an event which would have Shakira in the opening ceremony. In both calls, Rubiales promises to get both done, but eventually, neither happened as you all know.

What Do We Take From All Of That?

It is just the fact that Gerard Pique was having an increasing influence on the entirety of Spanish football as a whole and Barcelona in specific. We are talking about a player in a club acting like an equivalent to said club, fighting over every detail. Pique used his leverage of making the Rakuten TV deal with Barcelona to make the club agree to play the Super Cup in Saudi Arabia. All that Pique did was a few calls and in return, he is going to have a total of 24 million by the time the deal expires. That's double what Pique would have from playing an entire season.

Pique was practically a member of Barcelona's board while being on the pitch as a player. Such shady business deals would definitely make you hated by the club's fans as it makes you a big part of the club's problems now both on and off the pitch. That's the fourth reason why Pique became so hated. And, most importantly, it takes to the fifth reason:

Pique's Role In Messi's Exit

This whole ordeal started with writer and journalist Juan I. Irigoyen's article titled Messi's purgatory in Paris where he talked about Messi's struggle in Paris after his move from Barcelona. In the middle of the article, Irigoyen took a detour into what was happening behind the scenes of Messi's exit. Irigoyen shared a piece of information that turned out to be crucial later.

While everyone is aware that Messi accepted to cut half of his pay to stay at Barcelona, that turned out to be not enough. At the same time, Barcelona's new president, Joan Laporta, was leading the charge to lower players' wages so the club becomes able to keep Messi. Who's at the top of that list of players? Gerard Pique since Luis Suárez had already left at the time.

Gerard Pique not only refused to lower his payment but also sent a message to Laporta stating that without Messi all financial issues will be solved, according to Irigoyen, the exact text read

Without Leo, the issue of financial fair play is fixed

Those were basically Irigoyen's words, no news media outlet reported it as an indisputable fact. It would have gone normally as merely a rumour, however:

People Started Connecting The Dots

People remembered that a month before the article Lionel Messi went to Barcelona for Xavi's birthday where he met his old friends, Sergio Busquets, Jordi Alba, and Sergi Roberto, all captains except Gerard Pique. Was this a mere accident? The answer to this came three months later.

In May 2022, Pique stated that he cried when Messi left Barcelona. This would have been a simple statement that would have gone easily if it weren't for Alfonso Aguilera Rosique, a very close friend of Messi's family, took Pique's words and commented about them on Instagram stating

You’re so phoney and arrogant, Gerard Pique, that you not only didn’t cry, but you also informed the mediocre Joan Laporta that he had to trade Leo Messi if he wanted to construct a successful squad. The same Messi who rescued you from Zaragoza when no one else wanted you because you had grudges, was jealous, and a lousy teammate.

Rosique also tagged both Pique and Laporta's accounts. Of course, neither replied. When taking this into account and adding the fact that Messi didn't say goodbye to Pique after the latter's retirement, that's when you know that Irigoyen's article was true. What's odd, however, is that Pique did in fact lower his wages directly after Messi's departure, doing what he refused to do for Messi to stay.

This is an extra reason for Messi to feel betrayed, add to that, Pique was also willing to forego his deferred payments, at least partly, which total around 35 million after tax, according to some sources, that would mean Pique genuinely thought that the club was better off without Messi and that they'd never form a strong team around Messi.

This takes us to two new questions:

• Would Barcelona never be able to form a strong team around Messi or with Messi?

• Would that strong team include Pique himself?

Both questions are difficult to answer since the largest factor of their answer lies beyond the pitch. My answer to the second question is obviously no as we literally saw what happened, but as far as the first question, that will be answered in my next post. As for now, much like Barcelona, we have to say goodbye to Pique from this series as the remaining of this series isn't really about him.

In Conclusion

Pique's extension of influence grew to a scary size that he actually managed to convince a club president, whose biggest logo when campaigning was his promise to keep Messi, to let Messi go. That's a scary level of power display that no other player, in history, could reach. You could make the argument that Cristiano or Messi could have done that with any player they wanted at the high points of their career, but here we're literally talking about a person who caused Messi himself to leave the club.

Out of fairness to Pique, I will dive into whether his decision for Messi to leave was actually good for the club or not, but the issue remains that it was HIS decision. A player, who's hated by the fans and is at his worst level of performance, made another player who is arguably the greatest in the club's history, and one who'd go on to win the Ballon d'Or a few months later, leave the club. That's an abuse of power unmatched by any other player, a power that would have never been afforded to Pique in the first place.