Gerard Pique is the best defender in Barca’s HISTORY but don’t be shocked if he returns as president

The last time Gerard Pique left Barcelona, ​​he came back four years later to establish himself as the greatest centre-back in the club’s history.

The farewell video he posted on social media on Thursday night left no one in doubt that he will be back again, and probably next time as president.

“You all know me and sooner or later I’ll be back,” he said in the video, and no one noticed he looked up at the boardroom as he said it.

Until the ‘President Pique’ there will be plenty of time for Pique to recall the player – a winner of 30 trophies with Barcelona, ​​plus the World Cup and European Championship with Spain.

It will not only be what he has won that he will be remembered for; it will be the way he won it. His nickname ‘Piquenbauer’ suited him perfectly – few since Franz Beckenbauer have ever played so well in the central defensive position.

When Pep Guardiola took over the Barcelona first team in 2008, he wanted everyone to be flawless on the ball – that was the season Pique returned from a four-year spell at Manchester United, and he was a perfect fit for Guardiola’s revolution.

As a 17-year-old boy at Old Trafford, he was once handed a video by Franco Baresi telling him to watch and learn. “I got the film from one of the coaches, Jim Ryan, because he said I shared some of his traits and that I could learn a lot from him,” he told me in an interview in 2011.

United had noticed that polished poise in possession of that positional excellence, even though he could rarely show it for United with Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic before him.

Guardiola encouraged the playmaker on his return and together with the more combative Carles Puyol they formed the perfect partnership.

‘The Odd Couple’ Graham Hunter mentioned them in his book ‘Spain’ in which he describes the dominance of the team that won two euros and a World Cup. In the second and third of those tournaments, Piqué paired up with Puyol and their friendship blossomed off the pitch – the younger man pulled the senior partner out of his social shell.

Piqué had plenty of lead for the pair – in his first season with Barcelona, ​​he scored the sixth goal in a 2-6 win at the Santiago Bernabeu and celebrated in front of the smoking home crowd – the grin was almost as wide as the deficit.

It helped Pique become the Barça player many Madrid fans hated most, but he enjoyed the cheers and whistles even when – outrageous considering what he won for Spain – the same cheers could be heard in some matches in Spain.

With Dani Alves to his right, Puyol to his side and Eric Abidal to his left, Pique was the man who never set foot wrong in Barcelona’s brilliant defence. It doesn’t matter Iniesta, Busquets, Xavi’s midfield or the mighty Messi and his various attackers, Guardiola’s brilliant Barca was built on an extraordinary back four.

Pique was never blessed with blazing speed, but he played the highline impeccably and read every match to perfection and he was just as good alongside Javier Mashcerano when the Argentine replaced Puyol as his partner.

His 30 club trophies are second to Messi (35) and Iniesta (32) and only four players, including his current coach, have played more games for the club.

His relationship with Xavi is strained by the club’s desire to kick him out in the hopes of avoiding paying off his contract. €40 million (£35 million).

That wish led to the signing of three players in the summer who could all play in his position. He barely played in the first two months of this season and it was too much to ask of him to perform at his best against Inter Milan when he was thrown in due to injuries and Xavi’s inflexible tactics still required that ultra-high line. His last Champions League night at the Camp Nou was not a memorable one.

“Thanks for everything, Geri. They have been very unfair to you,” Puyol tweeted.

No doubt referring to the club that pushed him out and to the minority of supporters at the Nou Camp who occasionally whistled him in the matches he played after the game against Inter. Few have defended the shirt like you have.

The tone of his farewell video shows that he’s not done defending the colors yet. His entrepreneurial and business acumen have already seen him adopt and revive the old model of Tennis’ Davis Cup, and he has bought Andorra, which is currently ninth in Spain’s second division – a level above the B-team of Spain. Barcelona.

His ownership of that club has always felt like an internship for his eventual Barca presidency.

He made the deal for the club who signed a €50m (£44m) per season shirt sponsorship deal with Rakuten in 2020 and he won’t be short of ideas on how they should move forward as a club.

His grandfather Amador Bernabeu served as a director, he never denied a long-term desire to do better than that.

That’s the future. The gift is his last game at Camp Nou this weekend, when he gets the farewell he deserves. And the glorious past can be remembered, when at the heart of the team’s defense there was no one better.