FCBARCELONA.CAT

27.05.2008 12:03

Piqué shines at youth level

Jaume Marcet

Gerard Piqué returns to FC Barcelona, where he spent several successful years in his youth (1997/2004). With such strength and distributional skills, he helped the side to several honours.

Gerard Piqué started out in a social tournament at Barça and ended up playing at all levels through to Juvenil A (Under 18), before signing for Manchester United. It was in 1997 that he appeared for the Alevín B (Under 12) side for the first time.

In 1999/2000 he shared a dressing room with several others who would go on to bigger things. Marc Valiente, Víctor Vázquez and Cesc (now at Arsenal) formed, along with Gerard, a quality core to the side coached by Rodolf Borrell.

Top trainer

The Barça coach told www.fcbarcelona.cat that that was “an incredible season. I remember we reached the last game of the season having scored 192 goals; we were beating Granollers 5-0 away at half time, and then I put pressure on them to get three more goals.” They did that and thus scored a fantastic 200 goals in just 30 games.

The Barça Aleví A team also won the Catalan Cup and Borrell remembers how “after five minutes Piqué got injured but I wanted to know nothing of it because he would have been an important loss. He was heading for the bench but I gestured for him to carry on. Although he had pulled a muscle, young Gerard played the whole match with his left foot to avoid making his injury any worse.”

Success with Infantil A

After winning everything with the Infantil B (Under 13) side under Ursicinio López, Piqué crossed paths with Rodolf Borrell again in Infantil A (Under 14). That side possessed a wealth of talented players, and won the league with seven games to spare. In the Catalan Championship against Espanyol, the opposition grabbed an early goal, but Borrell remembers well what happened after. “Piqué took the reigns of the match and led a comeback with an incredible show of character”. The centre back scored a goal and the team went on to beat Espanyol to the title (4-3).

Evolution in cadete and juvenil

In Cadet B (Under 15), in 2001-02, Piqué spent half of the season under Albert Benaiges and the other under Tito Vilanova. This was the year that Messi exploded onto the scene, the team won every competition it was involved in, and Gerard Piqué started showing that he was not just a great centre back. He was played as a defensive midfielder and performed brilliantly.

In his second years at Cadete level, under Àlex García, Barça won the League and the Copa Catalunya, but rather than results, it was the way the team played that really impressed. His final season at the club was 2003-04, when Piqué started in the Juvenil A (Under 18) side coached by Àlex García, but ended up winning the league with the Juvenil B (Under 17) led by Guillermo Hoyos.

Goalscoring defender

From very young, Gerard Piqué was always tall for his age, but it was not just height but also skill that made him stand out from the crowd. One of his coaches spoke of his “great vision of time and space.” He has always had a natural knack of positioning himself properly, but this also refers to the way he plays going forward, where his rate of ten or more goals a season is extraordinary for a defender.