Association football

After turning traditional men’s soccer on its head with his Kings League, ex-professional soccer player Gerard Piqué now has his eyes set on transforming women’s soccer using the same formula: streamers, drama, and video game-like rules. Behind the Scenes at Gerard Piqué’s Kings League FinalsPiqué will debut his Queens League for women’s soccer today with six back-to-back games at the league’s Cupra Arena stadium in Barcelona. Like in the Kings League, many of the Queens League teams are led by some of the biggest female…

This past Sunday, former FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué became known for something other than being the main character in ex-partner Shakira’s diss track. Now, he’s the person who sold out his former club’s famed stadium, Camp Nou, with his Twitch-focused soccer league—and that was before his real stunts began.In true Kings League spirit, the tournament’s Final Four matchup, the biggest in-person event ever held by a Twitch streamer, ended with several bombshells that astounded viewers and encouraged them to keep on…

BARCELONA, Spain — Gerard Piqué’s Kings League, a new soccer league that just three months ago debuted to jokes and scorn, came to a glorious, dramatic finish in FC Barcelona’s famous Camp Nou stadium on Sunday. As Piqué handed the glittering gold trophy to the winner, Adri Contreras’ “El Barrio,” a perpetual underdog whose team was the only one without a sponsor, one thing became clear: The Kings League is here to stay. A total of 92,522 spectators attended the Kings League’s Final Four matchup and managed to sell out…

Leer en español.Come this Sunday, former FC Barcelona player Gerard Piqué will not only preside over a fireworks-filled final for the Kings League, his Twitch-focused indoor soccer conference, he’ll also be on the lookout to see how many people are wearing masks. Because besides crowning the Kings League’s first champion, Piqué wants to break a Guinness World Record.In recent weeks, Piqué and the popular streamers that serve as team presidents in the Kings League have been working nonstop to fill FC Barcelona’s famed Camp…

Former FC Barcelona soccer player Gerard Piqué unveiled a huge banner in Barcelona on Friday throwing shade at mainstream soccer for being “scared” of his new Twitch soccer league, the Kings League, and its upcoming final at the famed Camp Nou stadium. “The thought of us filling up Camp Nou really scares them,” the banner read in Spanish and Catalan, part of Piqué’s final push to sell out the 99,000-seat Camp Nou stadium, the largest in Europe, for the Kings League final on March 26. Although the Kings League did not…

Photo: Courtesy of the Kings League InfoJobsAfter being written off as a “circus” by mainstream soccer officials, Gerard Piqué’s new Kings League continues to prove that, actually, there are hundreds of thousands of people completely hooked on this specific type of wacky, free-for-all sport. As they say in showbiz, the show must go on.The Kings League is an indoor soccer league started by Piqué, a former defense player with FC Barcelona, that debuted in January. For the uninitiated, it’s like a soccer video game in real…

BARCELONA, Spain — Getting to the Cupra Arena, home of Gerard Piqué’s Kings League, to see a face-off between a Twitch streamer and a former Real Madrid goalkeeper requires patience and a prayer. Patience because there’s a chance you’ll end up driving in circles in the middle of nowhere, and a prayer that your taxi driver won’t get fed up and leave you stranded in the industrial outskirts of Barcelona.Upon arrival, there’s a good chance you’ll get mobbed by teenagers hoping to catch a glimpse of soccer legends or internet…

The egg held the record for most liked Instagram post for nearly four years, taking the crown from Kylie Jenner.Image: Marcelo Endelli (Getty Images), Pineapple studio (Shutterstock)As the World Cup comes to a close, Argentine soccer player Lionel Messi took home more than just the titular trophy. Messi’s Instagram post celebrating the team’s win is now the most-liked Instagram post in history. “I dreamed it so many times, I wanted it so much that I still haven’t fallen, I can’t believe it...” Messi wrote in the caption,…

The World Cup is over, so now what?Photo: Julian Finney (Getty Images)For many Americans, soccer is a once-every-four-year thing. We watch the World Cup, the biggest and most important soccer tournament in the world, but once it’s over, it’s over. Then we forget about the sport until the next World Cup. Next time around, though, the 2026 World Cup is here in North America, so maybe you want to prep early and keep that soccer buzz going. So how do you do it? What do you watch? Where do you watch it? We’ve got you…

Cameras are pictured on March 28, 2022 above Qatar’s Al-Bayt Stadium in Doha, which will host matches of the FIFA football World Cup 2022Photo: Gabriel Bouys (Getty Images)On the creepier side of things, this year’s World Cup will also go down as one of the most tightly surveilled in the sport’s history. This year, each and every attendee entering a stadium will be tracked by a system of 15,000 cameras equipped with facial recognition technology. The surveillance apparatus, reminiscent of the tech used by more notorious…