Quique Setien sheds light on Gerard Pique’s bicycle incident in 2020: “He was the best player”

Quique Setien has created quite a noise within the Barcelona fanbase by preferring not to open up on his relationship with Lionel Messi. Setien’s comments were revealed in the first episode of his documentary “Informe Setien”.

In addition to the question on Messi, Setien talked about an incident that took place in 2020, when Gerard Pique arrived for the Catalan derby riding a bicycle.

The incident had raised many eyebrows at the time as the defender arrived at Camp Nou car park on a bike, wearing a t-shirt, shorts and a baseball cap.

“Pique arrived by bike and we only had two central defenders. I saw the video and told him: ‘When I go to the press conference to give explanations, what do I say?’ He responded, ‘it’s okay mister‘,” revealed Setien (h/t Movistar) when asked about his interaction with the defender at the time.

The Barcelona coach ended up starting the veteran centre-back against Espanyol as he did not have too many options at the heart of the backline.

Setien, though, believes the decision turned out to be a fruitful one as Pique ended up emerging as one of the top performers in a match that ended 1-0 in favour of Barça.

“Pique was the best player of the game,” adds Setien, who was in charge of FC Barcelona until August 2020.

During his spell in Catalonia, Setien won 16 out of the 25 matches, but he was laid off following the infamous 2-8 defeat at the hands of Bayern Munich. Setien was replaced by Ronald Koeman in the summer of 2020.