Piqué: "Ferguson's English sounded like Chinese"

Barcelona player Gerard Piqué gave an interview to Catalan sports paper Sport.

How does it feel to be back, living in Catalonia again?
There's just no comparison possible between living in Maresme and living in Manchester, but I don't regret at all the decision I made. In Mancheser I learnt to be a football player because there's nothing else to do there. You can only play football.

Joining Manchester meant getting independent?
Of course, I always had lived with my parents in Barcelona. I had my friends from school and at the club. I was part of a generation of players that had won everything in the youth leagues. The change of environment was very hard.

Tell us about your problems...
Well, I wouldn't call it problems because I became a true player in Manchester. But I arrived without a very good knowledge of the English language and I got a bit lost in conversations.

And even more when talking to Ferguson...
The gaffer, which is how Ferguson is known in Mancheser, talks English with a Scottish accent which sounded like Chinese to me. But I wasn't the worst one, there are players in the current squad who still don't understand him.

So everything changed when you returned to Barcelona?
To Cabrils, to be more concrete.

Ok, to Cabrils. Why did you decide to live in the Maresme region while most of the star players live in Gavà and Castelldefels?
You've seen the peace, the silence, the view and the quietness you have here? It's great to be able to go out and walk along the sea to disconnect of everything. I bought the house I'm living in now when I was still playing with Manchester. I think it was some kind of compensation for my life there.

You will get in trouble because of the cockles and the ham we're eating now?
I hope not, but you'll notice that I'm controlling myself. Which can't be said about all journalists. Everything you eat should be recorded.

This food regime, monitored by a dietitian, is something new to you or you already knew that from your time at Manchester?
In England, it's horrible. Everyone ate what they wanted and if you know the English food, you can imagine what I'm talking about. Every two weeks we got into the 'folds machine' to test the percentage of fat in our bodies. It would be a scandal if people would see how some star players almost damaged that machine because they lived on hamburgers and beer.

This was the first part of this interview. Tomorrow you'll read the second part, with Piqué talking - amongst other things - about the competition at Barcelona and the chance of playing the World cup in 2010.

Read more interviews with Barcelona players here