Barcelona had a bad weekend after it lost 1-0 at home to Malaga in La Liga. However, that wasn’t the reason why the football club was mentioned in many headlines. It turns out that Barcelona’s pre-match preparations have been disturbed by the news that two squad members paid a late night visit to a casino.
As can be seen on several photos published in the media, the club star Lionel Messi and his teammate Gerard Pique decided to have a night out in the Hotel Arts in Barcelona. They had the company of Chelsea’s Cesc Fabregas when they were caught at the casino located in the basement of the hotel.
This wouldn’t have made the headlines unless the players weren’t supposed to fly to England the day after for tonight’s Champions League clash with Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium. Messi and Pique were having fun playing casino games at 12:20am, only 10 hours before Barcelona’s flight.
However, the most interesting thing about the whole situation was Luis Enrique’s refusal to condemn the duo’s casino visit. Barcelona’s boss was asked about his opinion on Messi and Pique’s partying and all he had to say was: “I focus on football. I am not interested in gossip.” He further explained that he always speaks and analyses everything that is important, but not on things that have a bad intention or concern players’ private lives.
Similar statement was given by Barcelona’s defender Gerard Pique who said that that was his private life and he had no intentions on commenting on the event. He did, however, pointed out that they had a nice time at the casino.
In any case, this whole situation didn’t look good and fuelled rumours that there is a rift between the manager Enrique and his players after the painful defeat by Malaga.