Barcelona's Gerard Pique on Learning Lessons, Living the Moment and Future Plans

A few weeks before he was suspended for four games for allegedly hurling a colourful insult at an assistant referee about his mother, Gerard Pique sat in the hallway of a luxury hotel in downtown San Francisco and reflected on what, up to then, had been an almost dreamlike year of his existence.

"I can’t say a negative thing about my life right now," he told Bleacher Report in an exclusive interview. "When [Spain] won the World Cup in 2010, it was a pretty good moment too. But in 2015, I have two kids, and I’m really enjoying them. I’m really, really happy."

At the time, it was hard to imagine things could go any better—here he was, 28 years old, rich and famous and impeccably handsome, married to a beautiful and even more famous pop singer, Shakira, with whom he’d recently purchased a $5 million house, reported by Sport. He had just won the treble with Barcelona, the club he’d grown up dreaming of playing for, the club for which his grandfather had once been a director.

Already on Barca’s tour of the United States, Pique had toured Hollywood and stopped by the Staples Center and met with Kobe Bryant. "He was asking how three weeks ago [we] were playing in the final of the Champions League and now our season is already starting," Pique says.

In San Francisco, Pique—an unabashed NBA fan who grew up idolizing Magic Johnson—had the chance to shoot around with the Golden State Warriors’ Harrison Barnes and tour the offices of Twitter, the social-media platform on which Pique has more than 11 million followers.

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

And so Pique was trying to live in the moment, to appreciate everything that had already come to him, to revel in his good fortune, to enjoy as much of his American experience as he could. He was about to launch into the second season of a contract that keeps him in Barcelona through 2019; he was once again fortunate enough to play in a team loaded with talent, including Lionel Messi, who just happens to be the most-exciting player in the world.

"I know that I have five or six years more, and this is not a lot of time," he said. "I’m getting older, and I have to enjoy every year. One day, it will be finished, so I want to focus on my career. We’re in a really good generation with a lot of players on the team, so we have to take advantage of it."

Yet Pique, whose mother is a neurosurgeon and whose father is a businessman (as well as a novelist), is intelligent enough to know he has to start looking ahead, to envision a life beyond soccer. Already, he’s become involved with three or four different businesses, including a food company and video-game startup called Kerad Games that runs an online fantasy soccer management-style game called Golden Manager, which has more than five-million users.

But part of that long-term plan could involve making inroads in America, a place where Pique is still low-profile enough he went largely unrecognized in California, except by foreign-born immigrants who follow Spanish soccer and the hardcore Barcelona fans who parked themselves outside the hotel.

John Shearer/Associated Press

Still, Barca has made no secret of the fact it is seeking to make inroads in the American market. And the obvious model for someone such as Pique—someone whose wife’s fame eclipses his own—would seemingly be David Beckham, whose time with the L.A. Galaxy exposed him to a whole new audience.

Every so often he considers that and the possibility of expanding his profile in America, perhaps in tandem with his wife’s own career: "Maybe one day, if I can come and play here, it will be different."

Pique tells me Beckham had a "different kind of career" because he switched teams so often; other than an early-career stint with Manchester United, Pique has stuck with his hometown team and plans to do so for as long as he can.

If anything, he says, his model in the American market is Pau Gasol, the Spanish-born NBA star who’s become one of the faces of the league. Pique's loyalties are with Barca, and for the moment, Barca’s loyalties are with him, given he’s a key cog in their defense.

When asking current club president Josep Maria Bartomeu if Pique might someday be in his position, he hedged, but it seems like a distinct possibility. "I’m sure he will be close to the club [when he retires]," Bartomeu says.

Not everything is easy, of course. Pique and Shakira have to deal with the constant spectre of paparazzi in their lives. Part of the reason they bought that multimillion-dollar home in Barcelona was because it’s surrounded by trees, permitting their sons, Milan and Sasha, a certain amount of privacy.

They’ve been strategic about releasing pictures and videos of their children through social media—including Shakira’s recent Instagram video of six-month-old Sasha kicking a soccer ball for the first time.

Manu Fernandez/Associated Press

"It’s really easy to find our private places to go and be," Pique said. "We have to change a little bit of our plans sometimes and not go to places with a lot of people. Sometime it’s impossible to disconnect from [the attention], but it is what it is. You have to accept it. You have to live a normal life."

This is something Pique has always tried to do in Spain despite his notoriety. For a long time, he was known as the team’s resident practical joker: On occasion, he’d remove the battery from Messi’s phone without him noticing. That’s changed somewhat as he’s gotten older and taken on more of a leadership role with Barca.

"When I was young, I was like 100 percent all the time," he said—but he insisted he still plays the game with a certain amount of perspective, with the kind of joy many of his teammates don’t have.

Sometimes, that can mean he’ll delve into controversy—as he did when he trolled Cristiano Ronaldo at a Champions League victory celebration and reportedly used colourful language to describe rivals Real Madrid after Barca’s UEFA Super Cup victory in August—but that’s what sets Pique apart from his colleagues.

David Ramos/Getty Images

"He came with the idea of having a good time,” his teammate Xavi once said. The Financial Times described him as looking like "a chilled hipster enjoying a kick-around." That can mean Pique often plays fast and loose, but it also means he’s not immune to making mistakes: In October 2014, he was reportedly caught checking his cellphone while sitting on the bench during a game. When asked about that, his answer could have applied to this most recent referee-related controversy—though Pique has claimed he didn’t direct any insult at the official in question.

"Everyone in life makes mistakes—the most important thing is to be better," he said. "It makes you a better person and player. There are times when you see something you did when you were young, and then you have perspective, and you think, ‘How could I have done that?'"

Pique is still young, still prone to errors in judgment. But he recognizes how lucky he’s been so far. He recognizes, too, that this time in his life won’t last forever. "I’m trying to enjoy this moment," he said. "Because it’s a really good moment."

Michael Weinreb writes for titles including Sports Illustrated, Grantland and Bleacher Report and is based in San Francisco. All quotes in this piece were gathered firsthand unless otherwise stated.