Barcelona legend, Gerard Pique has disclosed that he would have retired earlier had Barcelona not experienced a centre-back injury crisis at the beginning of the 2022/23 LaLiga season.
The 36-year-old announced his retirement on November 3, 2022, and then played his final game for Barça just two days later, his 616th appearance for the club and the 769th senior game of his career in total.
Pique had only been a bit-part player this season but was still called upon when the likes of Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo and Andreas Christensen were sidelined with injuries at various times.
Speaking in an interview on Twitch, Pique revealed that he always planned to walk away when he was no longer a key player at the highest level and was already considering hanging up his boots.
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But that decision was ultimately delayed because the club still needed him to plug the gaps.
“Why retire in November? There are many reasons. People already know that I started the season with a conversation with Xavi, who told me that it was going to be difficult for him to play me,” Pique said.
“The feelings from the beginning were not the best in general and I saw that the break was an opportunity to have that decision. I have always said that when I was not important I would leave. If there had been no injuries in my position, I would have left before now.
“I no longer felt as I felt before. There was a day of training at Camp Nou after a game in which I was about to say ‘I’m leaving now’. I saw that it was no longer my place. When [other players] started to get injured, I said ‘I can’t leave the team’. That’s why I set the break of the World Cup.”