Barcelona defender, Gerard Pique, has opened up on his time at Manchester United and revealed how the entire dressing room conjured a prank against Patrice Evra. Speaking to TV3 in an in-depth interview, he also stated that this sort of humour isn’t appreciated in Barcelona and he put many a frowns on his team-mates faces when he tried some of it in Spain.
He added that no one was offended when players played a prank on each other at Manchester United, which according to him is not the case at Barcelona.
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“I’m a big fan of British humour. It was what I loved about Manchester. They don’t get offended when you play tricks on them. They try to get you back, but they don’t complain. Here at Barca, my humour hasn’t always been appreciated by everyone. I deflate teammates tires and other things, but this is nothing compared to what happened at United.”
The former Manchester United defender then went on to explain a story involving a prank played on former Red Devils left-back, Patrice Evra.
“One day Patrice Evra came in with shoes that he’d been asking Nike for months to make. They had the name of his children on them and all these crazy details. He went into the shower and we created a small bonfire and burned them. We recorded it and then sent him the video.
“In the first few years here (at Barca) I tried similar things but it didn’t work. It’s not the same culture.”
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Indeed, the culture in Britain is a more relaxed one compared to the rest of Europe. What can be done in the light of humour in England is something that would offend many people over the rest of the world.
Gerard Pique further attested to the fun-loving environment at his former club, stating how they would use expensive shirts as a target intended for free-kick practice.
“At United they would take an expensive shirt that you have bought and put it on the free-kick mannequins. The shirt would be ruined because of all the mud it would get on it every time the ball hit it. It was a dressing room full of life.”
The World Cup winner’s time at Manchester borders was more or less futile, in terms of games played, as he could only feature 23 times in the four years there. He returned to Barcelona in 2008 and went on to establish himself as one of the best center-halves in the world, winning numerous titles with both club and country.
