Life is pretty good for Gerard Pique.
After leaving Manchester United for Barcelona due to a competition for playing time with Jonny Evans, the Catalan won essentially everything there is to win in football both internationally for Spain and at club level, and he's also been romantically involved with global pop star Shakira for the best part of six years.
With a relationship like that among two huge stars, it must be incredibly difficult to cope with the intense media interest in their personal lives, but full credit must go to both for managing to keep their private life private and only discuss matters on their terms, such as a feature with Spanish television network TV3.
Pique decided to tell the story of how he won Shakira's heart for the TV show, and incredibly it all started with a text about the weather, before a cheesy (or romantic if your heart isn't cold and cynical like mine) line eventually sealed the deal.
First time I met Shakira was in Madrid when we filmed the video for Waka Waka before the 2010 World Cup and I asked for her number.
She arrived in South Africa before us (the Spanish national team) because she was singing at the opening ceremony. I sent her a text asking how the weather was because we were arriving in a few days.
This is a typical stupid question that you write and normally get a response like, ‘it’s cold, bring a coat’.
But then she writes a long paragraph, detailing the change in temperature throughout the day. I thought, ‘Jesus, this is not normal’. It was in those details that I could tell there was affection.
We started messaging each other throughout the tournament, but the only chance I would have of seeing her would be at the final because she was performing the closing ceremony.
I told her that if I had to reach the final to see her I would do so. And that was the second time we met, after the World Cup Final.
Fantastic. When she sends back a detailed paragraph on the changes in air temperature, you know she's keen.
The idea of telling her that if he needs to reach the final to see her is like something you would find in a film with Hugh Grant on the cover, but listen, it did the trick. Pique won the world cup, and in doing so found his parter who just happens to be an international megastar, not a bad month, all told.
Fair play to them managing to keep going strong despite what we can only imagine is seriously intrusive nosiness from the Spanish press if their employment of lip-readers and ridiculous post-match interviews are anything to go by.
[via 101GreatGoals]
