Former Barcelona and Spain center back, Gerard Piqué waved goodbye to his professional career in November 2022, but his next endeavor means Piqué isn’t saying goodbye to the beautiful game just yet.
Piqué has always been invested in a lot of business-related projects and since his retirement, the former defender has started up his own league with a lot of familiar faces and rules you’ve probably never heard of.
Named the Kings League, Piqué launched the new football league on January 1, in collaboration with Spanish streamer – Ibai Llanos.
The purpose of the Kings League is to bring younger generations closer to football through new uncommon rules that break the traditional conventions of the game we all know and love.
The Kings League features 12 teams consisting of seven players per squad. Retired icons are pitted against each other as well as unknown football fans who applied to be in the league through an online draft on December 27.
The teams have been joined by former professionals such as Iker Casillas, Chicharito Hernandez, and Sergio Aguero – who made his debut and scored for the team KuniSports on Sunday 15 January.
Some unconventional rules that have been incorporated into the Kings League include limitless substitutions and kick-off means both teams must start from the back line – similar to water polo.
The best new rules has to be the five wild cards that each team draws before kick-off. Each wild card can either lead to bonuses such as being awarded a penalty, playing with a scored head-start, or doubling a goal.
In response to a NSS Sports report, Piqué explained: “The product of football is outdated today. To attracts the attention of the young audience, you have to create short and entertaining content – 90 minutes is too long. If we are not going to have time, we should at least introduce more stimulating rules.”
I think It’s good that Piqué is keeping himself occupied during retirement, especially considering he’s now separated from his wife, Shakira, who’s been making headlines recently following the release of her song “Bzrp Music Session, Vol:53” where she disses the father of her children.
In the song, Shakira compares Piqué’s alleged affairs to swapping “a Ferrari for a [Renault] Twingo.” While it’s hard to argue with Shakira here, Piqué doesn’t seem too distraught as he humourously turned up to his King League last weekend in none other than a Renault Twingo.
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