The New York TimesThe New York Times

Gerard Piqué has seen soccer's future

By Rory Smith

05 Apr 2023 · 8 min read

Editor's Note

Gerard Piqué retired from soccer last year to focus on growing his multimillion-dollar business. Now, he’s working on his biggest idea yet. The NYT looks at how he’s reshaping the future of the sport.

Gerard Piqué has always been an ideas guy. He has, at various times, had ideas about industries as disconnected as isotonic sports drinks and international tennis tournaments. He has invested in the sunglasses business and the cellphone video game industry. He has dabbled in media rights and soccer team ownership and organic burgers.

For a long time, Piqué did all of that while also being one of the standout soccer players of his generation, a cornerstone on a series of Barcelona squads that harvested glory in industrial quantities and a key component on a Spanish national team that won a World Cup and a European Championship. Excelling at soccer, though, was never enough.

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