Gerard Piqué revealed how he lived national team break after October 1, 2017, the date on which it took place the referendum in Catalonia. The former Barcelona footballer tells in the fragment of his interview for TV3 (which will be broadcast in full next November 28) how was it his arrival in Madrid and, more precisely, in Las Rozas, to prepare for the commitments of the Spanish national team.
Pique explains that the coach of the Spanish team at the time, Julen Lopetegui, criticized him for positioning himself in favor of the right to decide and that I had written to him “an apology speech”which he gave to her upon his arrival at the rally to read at a press conference.
❗PIQUÉ, THE ENDEMÀ OF OCTOBER 1ST
💥 The coach of the Spanish national team will recall Piqué who positioned himself “in favor of Catalonia”
💣Finally, I had already written an apology speech according to which Piqué was going to “fill the trash”
-Esport3 (@esport3) November 24, 2024
Upon his arrival at Las Rozas, the former footballer said that “surprisingly, the coach and the captain caught me -who were Lopetegui and Sergio Ramos- and they tell me that I should ask for forgiveness. “You have positioned yourself very strongly in favor of Catalonia.” “I go to the room, I read the newspaper, I throw it in the trash“I go back down and tell him that if he wants me to do a press conference, I will do it better in my own way,” admits the former culé player about the reaction he had on this subject.
On the other hand, the former Spanish international ensures that that day, 1-O was difficult to play the championship match against Las Palmas. “It was a very hard dayIn the end, we played a match which, I think, should not have been played, but it’s a more personal opinion and the club decided to end up playing”, he emphasizes. Barcelona ended up win the match 3-0 without an audience in the stands and later Pique appeared in front of the media and couldn’t hold back his tears. “At the end of the match, they put the microphone on me in the mixed zone. “I was excited and the next day I went to Madrid with the Spanish team.”
A few days before the Catalan referendum on October 1, Piqué declared: “from today until Sunday, let us express ourselves peacefully. Let’s not give them any excuses. This is what they want. And we will sing very loudly and very loudly. He did this through his social networks and with his call to the polls with the Hashtag #Votarem.
Of avui i fin diumenge, expressem-us peacefully. No excuse for the Els Salut Donem cap. He’s the one who steals. I sing Ben Alt I Ben Fort. #Votarem
– Gérard Pique (@3gerardpique) September 28, 2017
Pique remembers that from that moment, “Everywhere the team went, everything was whistled”. Of course, the former footballer has at no time acknowledged his position regarding the independence of Cataloniaeven if he was in favor of the Catalan people deciding their future democratically.
Shortly after Piqué posted the controversial comment on the networks, Ramos admitted that “Piqué’s tweet is not the best if you don’t want to get whistled. Maybe the tweet isn’t the best for the group, but everyone is free to say what they think. As captain, I think of the good atmosphere of the national team, Pique will know what he says. “Maybe it wasn’t the time or it wouldn’t help much.”
