"My priorities are football, football and football" - Piqué hits back at Davis Cup critics
Making a nod to the “Wales. Golf. Madrid” saga surrounding Golf-mad Gareth Bale, avid tennis fan Piqué wanted to stress that his priorities are: “Football, football and football:”
Gerard Pique has become the latest to make reference to the Gareth Bale “Wales. Golf. Madrid. In that Order” fiasco in an acceptance speech during the Catalan Football Stars awards gala in Barcelona.
After previously announcing that he would be unable to attend the event due to personal commitments, the Barcelona defender turned up at the last minute to pick the award for best Catalan footballer of the year.
“I wasn’t planning to come. I mean, I thought I wouldn’t be able to come. In the end I landed on time. Sorry for my attire,” said Pique, who had landed from London and attended the event in casual jeans, sweatshirt and jacket.
He added: “I am very happy and proud. Thanks to my teammates, to the club. Without them I would not be what I am and I would not have any kind of awards. Hopefully have a year of success.”
Piqué hits back at critics
Like golf-mad Bale, Pique’s dedication to his sport has been questioned over his major involvement in the revamped Davis Cup tennis tournament, in which his company Kosmos Tennis has pledged $3bn over 25 years. A keen tennis fan, Piqué has called the Davis Cup endeavour the “project of my life”.
Making a nod to the “Wales. Golf. Madrid” saga surrounding Bale at the awards gala, Pique wanted to stress that his priorities are: “Football, football and football:”
“I know that in the last weeks the newspaper editors…. Are they here?... They love me very much... They write that I may be distracted by Davis. This award is from last year and last year I was already involved with Davis and this year will be the same. You can complement things,” said the Barcelona centre back.
“And regardless of that, the love for this [Barcelona] shirt and giving everything on the pitch is sacred and it will remain so. The desire is there and hopefully it will be a good year and we win many titles. If we win many titles, those who write this stuff now will not have anything to do with it.”
The 32-year-old went on to further stress his love for Barcelona and said he intends to play on as long as he can.
“I’ll keep going and enjoy it, the more years the better. The day that, for whatever reason, I cannot play for Barça, I will leave. But every day I go to Camp Nou I am fulfilling a dream. If my legs and head permit it, I will continue.”