Today is Gerard Piqué's 24th birthday, and we at Barca Blaugranes want to congratulate him and thank him for all he's done for the club.
Piqué is a La Masia youth product and he used to play with Lionel Messi and Cesc Fabregas in Barcelona's youth ranks. He left to Manchester United in 2004, but he was always a culé at heart. He returned to the club in the summer of 2008 and he has since become a fundamental member in Pep Guardiola's side.
Ignored by Sir Alex Ferguson, Piqué has been instrumental in Pep Guardiola's Dream Team unprecedented success. His duo with Puyol is arguably the best centre-back duo in the football world today; together, they won everything with Barcelona (with a fantastic defensive record) and the World Cup with Spain, who became the first team to win a World Cup without conceding a single goal in the knockout stages.
Piqué has been hailed by many as the modern days' Beckenbauer (hence the nickname Piquenbauer) and even the German legend himself agrees with that. Some, including Marcel Desailly, already consider Piqué the best defender in Europe.
All we Barcelona supporters can wish is that Piqué has a very happy day with his teammates and friends (and can then celebrate hopefully with Shakira, rumoured to be his new girlfriend) and that he might stay at Barcelona for many years to come. At such a young age and such fine qualities, he has everything to become a Barcelona legend and one of the best defenders in the history of the game. We all hope he will!
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