A look back at Gerard before he became Piqué

"Ten years ago, I was pretty screwed. My life would have taken another direction if it wasn't for Ferguson. I arrived at Manchester as a boy and left as a man. They were crazy times for me because I'd never been that far away from home."

At 17, Gerard Pique wasn't the best centre back in the world and he himself admitted that in 'The Players Tribune'.

He appeared to be half-German with his blue eyes and blonde hair and he embraced the pressure on his shoulders. Pique has always been the same: when there's no challenge, he gets bored. When his rival pushes him to the limit, the better he performs. That's why the differences between Spanish football and English football weren't unsettling for him. The worst part for him was the food and the weather.

LINDA'S LEMON CAKE 

“With time I realised that I had left a lot more behind than I wanted to. When you compare them, there's no contest: the weather, the food, the language.. I lost all that," he admitted in his autobiography.

When he landed in Manchester, his 'adopted parents' Linda and Tony were waiting waiting for him at their house. It wasn't an easy start for the Catalan.

"I still remember my first meal with them. I suppose that, because it was my first day, they wanted to surprise me and prepared a special meal but it was really hard to digest."

That day went from bad to worse. "The cherry on the top of this were the desserts, especially the sweet ones. The warm lemon cake they gave me I'll never forget. It was a catastrophe! I felt a lump in my throat and I couldn't swallow it. Because the lemon was so tart my eyes began to water: and of course, they noticed this!" 

TOMMY AND THE SHAVING FOAM

Thomas Edward Lee is 33 years old and works at Sheffield's academy as the goalkeeper coach. Two years ago a serious injury forced him to retire after over 300 matches for Chesterfield. But before then, as a teenager, he played for United's youth side.

Pique met some characters during his time there. Tom and Pique were living under the same roof and spent a lot of time together. "It was on the outskirts of Manchester and so we lived together. Whenever he came into my room he tried to irritate me and piss me off. I tried to to lead him down the right path but the day I entered the room and I saw him eating shaving foam I decided to throw in the towel. I couldn't believe it!"

Despite Lee's best efforts to mess around with Pique, the defender's life was quite normal in Manchester. Wake up, train at Carrington, eat, train in the afternoon and then go to the gym.

"I went from going to school in the morning and training in the afternoon with Barça to becoming a professional footballer." The doubts arrived when he didn't have something to do. "There were a lot of nights when I returned home and it was dark at four o clock in the afternoon. I couldn't help but feel alone. It was depressing."

CUP VICTORY WITH THE ACADEMY 

With the academy side, Pique had his own Erasmus experience. He explained this in his book too. "There was a German, a Belgian, an Italian.. and it was with them I had a good relationship. The German was called Markus Neumayr and we're still friends to this day. When Barça took on Stuttgart in the quarter finals of the Champions League he came to visit me at the hotel to ask me if I'd be the godfather to his daughter."

The Belgian, of Congolese descent, was Floribert N’Galula. With him he discovered a new love of music. And the Italian was none other than Giuseppe Rossi. "I remember that we clicked straight away."

That team ended up winning the reserve's league and the cup. However the key moment for Pique was making his senior debut on the 26th October 2004 against Crewe Alexandra in the Carling Cup. After that he made his debut in the Champions League against Fenerbache.

CLOSE FRIENDSHIP WITH CRISTIANO

In his first days with the senior squad, Pique didn't take long to see who were the main men. "At 17 I was in United's dressing room, where mobile phones were banned, whilst Keane laid down the law. I had left my phone on vibrate because I thought I was smart but it began to vibrate. I'll never forget the way he looked at me. That is fear, my friend," he told SPORT in 2008. Keane's angry response is something he remembers to this day. "Who the hell's bloody phone is that?'

In the few days, he tried his best to make friends with those who understood him the best. "I spent the most time with Heinze and Cristiano but most of all with (the goalkeeper) Ricardo."

He was part of United's first team for three seasons (2004/05, 2005/06 and 2007/08) with another year spent on loan with Zaragoza (2006/07). However he never became first choice and Pique remembers a dark day in 2007 against Bolton.

Pique failed to make Anelka and Ferguson had made up his mind. "Everything changed after that day. Ferguson stopped trusting me." Ferdinand and Vidic were first choice and Pique was battling for a spot alongside Wes Brown, O’Shea and Silvestre. This is when Pique decided he needed to return to Spain.

Manchester was crucial to Pique's development and the player we see now. It allowed him the freedom to avoid the spotlight, to be just Gerard, and to do the stupid things you are only allowed to as a youngster.

"We had a paintball fight with the squad. It had rained and we saw journalists taking photos. There was a net blocking up from them and suddenly someone said: 'One, two three..' and in that moment we all started firing. The next day those photos were on the front pages of every newspaper!"