Tuesday, September 7, 2021 at 10:43

Gerard Pique has in the program La Sotana opened up about his tense relationship with Pep Guardiola during the time the two worked together at Barcelona. According to the 34-year-old centre-back, their bond changed after he started dating Shakira, with whom he is still together. However, Piqué emphasizes that there is now a “perfect relationship”.

“At a certain point there were considerable tensions, also with the dressing room in general. The rivalry with Jose Mourinho was very tiring,” said Piqué. Jose Mourinho was Real Madrid coach at the time (between 2010 and 2013) and regularly got into a fight with Guardiola or Barcelona. “Pep wanted absolute control over everything that happened. After I dated Shakira, my relationship with him changed. Now there is a perfect relationship between Pep and me.”

El Confidencial wrote in 2013 that Guardiola had Piqué monitored by a private investigator between 2008 and 2012 to see if he was leading an “orderly life.” The trainer was “obsessed” with the private lives of his players, according to a source. Piqué and Shakira ran into each other in 2010 and got into a relationship a year later. He now has two children with the Colombian singer: Sasha and Milan.

“There was a lot of pressure. I had the feeling that I had to do everything perfectly in the training. If there was ever a moment when I thought about leaving Barcelona, ​​it was at that moment,” Piqué refers to the summer of 2011. Guardiola left Barcelona a year later, while Pique remained loyal to the Catalans. Except for a trip to Manchester United between 2004 and 2008, he has played for the club all his life. Meanwhile, Pique has 568 appearances for Barcelona to his name.

Pique is currently struggling with a calf injury and a photographer from the El Diario Montanes caught him surfing with his family last week caused quite a stir in Spain. “The injury is going well. I was surfing because it’s going well. We asked the photographer not to use those photos, as that was our moment,” explains Piqué. The photos were eventually just printed, despite Piqué allegedly having an altercation with the photographer.