‘Roy lost his mind! He went nuts in front of everybody! It was incredible.’
By his own admission, Gerard Pique’s time at Manchester United was far from straightforward.
Signed from Barcelona as a youngster in 2004, the Spanish international spent four years as a United player, eventually returning to Barca in 2008 having failed to establish himself as a regular starter at Old Trafford.
Discussing his career in The Players’ Tribune, Pique reflects on his struggles to adapt to life in Manchester, describing it as a ‘complete shock’.
Though he expresses his gratitude to Sir Alex Ferguson – who he likens to a second father – Pique admits that he made ‘a thousand mistakes’ while at United. One of those mistakes came in the dressing room prior to one of his early matches for the club.
Aged just 18 at the time, Pique describes how, as he changed into his kit alongside the likes of Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand, he had already been feeling incredibly nervous.
Sitting beside Roy Keane, United’s then-captain, he recalls how the dressing room had been silent as they waited for Ferguson to come in and give the players their pre-match talk.
‘All of a sudden, you could hear this little vibration,’ he explains.
‘Roy is looking around the room.
‘Oh, shit. I realise it’s me. It’s my cell phone. I left it on vibrate, and it’s in the pocket of my pants, stuffed in the clothes bag that’s hanging right behind Roy’s head.
‘Roy can’t find where the noise is coming from. Now he’s looking around the room like a maniac. His eyes are darting everywhere, and he’s trying to figure it out.
‘You know the famous scene with Jack Nicholson in The Shining, when he bursts through the door? That’s what he looked like.’
‘“Whose. Bloody. F*****g. Phone. Is. That?!”,’ Keane had asked.
‘Finally, I spoke up, like a little boy. Very softly, I said, “I’m so sorry. It’s mine.”
‘…Roy lost his mind! He went nuts in front of everybody! It was incredible.
‘I almost shit myself. But it was a good lesson.’
Pique left United at the end of 2007/2008 season. Establishing himself as a regular starter for Barcelona in the next campaign, he was on the winning side when he faced his former United teammates in the next season’s Champions League final in Rome.
