Win of Spanish National Team against feeble Albania easily went into oblivion after social media were overflowed by reports of Pique cutting off Spanish flag from his shirt. It was a real storm, and many noticed that he is missing flag on his sleeves and that those were removed with scissors.
Almost immediately after the match in Shkodër, Pique showed sleeves that were removed. Everything was resolved quickly with this move as he proved that those cutoffs did not come with the Spanish flag. Furthermore, we could hear details that he received long sleeve shirt that has been later modified to short sleeve, simple as that.
La Furia Roja “The Red Fury, ” took 2:0 win from Albania and Julen Lopetegui’s squad is now one step closer to qualifying for the World Cup that will be held in Russia in 2018. After the match, we could hear Pique also adding that he will retire after the World Cup and it seems that these recent events caused him to speed up his decision stating that “although after Russia I’ll only be 31, I’ll leave.”
Spain debuted completely new away kit that comes with all-white shirts with red and yellow trim on the sleeves. Missing flag colors caused a real social media storm, but after explanation, we could hear most people supporting and defending famous footballer.
Immediately we noticed this it was very strange as the new jersey, like the old one, has Spanish coat of arms on both shirt and shorts. If you wanted to remove something completely, you would need to cut out these two but as it was later on confirmed this wasn’t the intention of Pique.
Here is the statement from the Spanish Football Federation:
The Royal Spanish Football Federation wishes to show its support to the international footballer Gerard Piqué about the controversy regarding the cut made on his jersey in the match against Albania.
On the contrary to what some malicious comments where the Spanish player was accused of cutting the sleeves of the jersey to avoid wearing the band with the national colours. In this regard, the RFEF wishes to explain that said band on the Adidas jersey only exists in the short sleeve version, and not on the long sleeve, which is the one Piqué used in the match. The absence of the bands can be seen on the intact version of the jersey worn by teammate Sergio Ramos, who did use the long sleeve.
Gerard Piqué cut the sleeve with the sole aim of playing more comfortably, the same way other players have done on many occasions.
The unjustified criticisms towards Gerard Piqué have provoked the player to think of leaving the Spanish National Team after the Russia World Cup: “I have tried everything, but I can’t bare this anymore, today’s issue of the sleeves is the the straw that breaks the camel. They’ve managed to make me lose the excitement of coming here and although after Russia I’ll only be 31, I’ll leave.”
