When something happens at Barça, it always ends up coming out one day or another… Thus, almost daily, the local media reveal controversies, crisp stories and anecdotes galore on what is happening behind the scenes of the side of the Camp Nou, not to mention the multiple mercato info. This Wednesday, we learned a little more about the relationship between executives in the locker room.
According to Catalan television TV3, there were big frictions in the second half of last season, with Gerard Pique at the heart of the scandal. The media explains in particular that the behavior of the Catalan defender greatly displeased Lionel Messi as well as other players like Sergio Busquets and Jordi Alba, and it is largely for this reason that he was not invited during Xavi’s birthday meal, where the three players mentioned above were present.
Messi, disappointed and betrayed
But what did good old Gerard Pique do? It’s simple. Last year, management negotiated a collective pay cut with the workforce. Discussions that were led, on the side of the players, by the Argentine superstar and Busquets. These were collective negotiations, which, moreover, did not really succeed. But Gerard Pique, for his part, negotiated his new contract individually, which would have hurt Lionel Messi enormously. The latter would have felt betrayed by the number 3.
Above all, the defender’s new contract – which considerably lowered his salary to allow among other things to register the Kun Agüero – initialed this contract once Messi had left, which angered the Argentine, who believes that if it had been done before, he would have had a chance to stay in Catalonia. Quite close since their first adventures with Barça’s youth teams, the two men are now cold. Pique was even said to have been called « Judas » by a teammate… Good atmosphere…
