Gerard Pique paying big price for party jibe

As the Spain national football squad arrived at the team hotel in Alicante ahead of Friday evening’s friendly against England, there were cheers for each of the players stepping off the bus.

Except for centre-back Gerard Pique, who was met by loud whistles from the 300 who appeared to have gathered just to barrack their own team’s player.

At the pre-match press conference, Vicente Del Bosque’s tone was angrier than his words suggest: “This current is now impossible to stop,” the Spain coach said. “We’ve reached the point where it would be unusual if they did not whistle Gerard Pique. I believe the best thing to do is not to worry about it, or speak any more about it.”

That is difficult, given the noise the issue continues to generate throughout Spain. The problem began during Barcelona’s ‘treble’ party last June, when an emotional Pique shouted ‘Thanks Kevin Roldan, it all started with you’.

Roldan was the Colombian pop star who played at Real Madrid galatico’s Cristiano Ronaldo’s controversial 30th birthday party earlier in the season.

The jibe drew huge cheers from Barca’s celebrating fans, but made Pique deeply unpopular among the Madrid faithful, and a target for unscrupulous media in the Spanish capital.

Pique was then whistled during Spain’s 2-1 friendly win over Costa Rica in Leon in mid-June, and again almost every time he touched the ball in September’s 2-0 Euro 2016 qualifier win over Slovakia in Oviedo.

After that game Pique himself called a special press conference to state his full commitment to the national team. But the ever deepening chasm between pro-independence politicians in Barcelona and the conservative national government in Madrid has not helped.

This atmosphere even reportedly led the Spanish FA to decide against playing Friday’s friendly at Madrid’s Estadio Santiago Bernabeu, due to the potential for embarrassment at the 90,000 seater ground.

Pique refuses to apologise for the Roldan comments. “I still think it was something very funny, which will always be remembered,” he said just last week.

“I didn’t insult anyone, there is nothing bad about having little digs at your rival. It’s just something I have to live through and hope it’s as short as possible,” the 28 year old went on.

“Nobody likes it — but you have two options. One is go, leave it, and say ‘that’s it’. But that would prove right many people who do not deserve it. The other option, which I chose, is to stick with it until the end, to be there and help the national team.”