Barcelona captain, Gerard Pique has opened up on the pressure of playing under Pep Guardiola at the club and how he changed towards him when he started dating superstar singer, Shakira.
Pique and Guardiola enjoyed a successful time at the LaLiga giants between 2008 and 2012, winning three LaLiga titles, two Champions League trophies together at a time when Barcelona and Real Madrid were at the top of their games.
Speaking about how strenuous working under Guardiola can be, he claimed the coach's rivalry with then-Real Madrid boss Jose Mourinho was tiring for the players - to the point that he started targeting him when he started dating pop star, Shakira, at the start of 2011.
Pique also claimed that Guardiola tried to 'control everything' and nearly forced him out of the Camp Nou.
The Spanish defender told Marca: 'We reached an important point of tension with him, and with the dressing room in general. The rivalry with José Mourinho was very exhausting.
'Pep wanted absolute control of everything that happened. I started dating Shakira and the relationship with him changed - now the relationship is perfect.
'I had a lot of pressure. I felt that in training I had to do everything perfect. If there was a moment in which I thought about leaving Barça, it was that season (the summer of 2011).'
Pique and Shakira started dating at the start of 2011, after they first met in the spring of 2010 when the Colombian pop star was filming her music video for that year's World Cup hit, 'Waka Waka'.
The footballer was part of the music video but both were not seen together as a couple until the following year when Shakira's 11-year relationship with her former agent Antonio de la Rua had broken down.
The couple are still together and have two sons, Millan and Sasha. In 2020, Forbes named Pique and Shakira in their list of the 'World's Most Powerful Couples'
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