Former Barcelona defender Gerard Piqué believes that Iñigo Martínez will be a very good reinforcement for the Barca team’s defense, which is further strengthened with the signing of the Basque central defender for the next two seasons.
“I met him in the Spanish team in a call-up and he is a great player who has spent years in LaLiga, who has played for both Real Sociedad and Athletic Bilbao, two great clubs in Spain, and who has a lot of experience”, Piqué stated in an interview with EFE.
The ex-Barça center back highlighted Iñigo Mártinez that “he comes out very well with the ball, he has a very good foot and a lot of character”, which is why the 32-year-old defender from Biscay believes, “he will adapt easily”.
“With him, the center-back position is going to be an even more competitive line, because there’s Ronald (Araujo), there’s Christensen, and Jules (Koundé) can play there too. The team already showed last season that defensively it can compete with a high level and we hope it continues like this”, he summed up.
Piqué has more doubts about how the goodbye of Sergio Busquets will affect the team, who did not accept the club’s renewal offer and will play for Inter Miami next season, where he will meet Leo Messi again.
“Until the competition starts, we are not going to realize at what level he is going to be missed. Busi has been very important in the recent history of the club, because he is a player who went like a glove to the team because of his way of understanding the game. And it is true that the pivotal position is perhaps the most important in a team like Barça, because of the way we play”, he reflected.
The former Catalan soccer player believes, however, that “there are players in the squad” who can “fill in well” for Busquets “such as Frenkie (De Jong)” and that the club can also “go to the market to find some other option” .
In any case, even without Sergio Busquets, Piqué believes that Barcelona can aspire to great things next season: “Winning LaLiga gives a lot of peace of mind and I think that Barça has a very good team, very young people with a lot of talent and a great future at all the positions”.
“A new generation is coming that has shown in recent months that it can compete and do it very well, and this means that, in the short and medium term, the club’s expectations are very high, despite the fact that we know it is suffering financially” he added.
This season will be the one of exile at the Estadio Olímpico Lluís Companys due to the works of Espai Barça, a situation that Gerard Piqué considers “obviously not ideal”, although he admits that “the Camp Nou needed a remodel”.
“It’s an ‘impasse’, a year that will be atypical, different. But I hope that people get hooked on the team, go to Montjuïc and fill the stadium”, said Piqué, who has always said that one day he would like to preside over FC Barcelona, although right now it is a goal that sees far.
“I do not close the door. I have said it on several occasions that it is one of my dreams at some point in my life, but as a vital project right now I do not see it close. There are other things that I am very passionate about and I want to continue focusing on them” , explained Piqué, who said that right now he is “one hundred percent focused” on his work at Kosmos, the company he chairs, and the expansion project of the Kings League.
