It is as if Gerard Pique never really left Barcelona – he just swapped his shirt for a producer and entrepreneur hoodie. His Kings League grew out of one glaring mistake in a Champions League match and, in a couple of years, turned into a global media show that has pulled in Camp Nou, Laporta, Yamal and half of the current and former Barça squad. Today it is no longer just a 7-a-side entertainment tournament, but a parallel world where the club looks for access to a new audience and players explore their future after top-level football.
The Error Against Inter That Led Pique to Create His Own League
The Kings League kicked off at the beginning of 2023 – just a couple of months after Pique had officially hung up his boots. Gerard himself admits that if not for one episode in the match against Inter in the 2022/23 Champions League group stage, the tournament might never have happened.
In that moment, after a long ball into the box, Pique spread his arms, expecting the goalkeeper to claim the ball. But the episode went horribly wrong, Barça ended up drawing 3–3 and, on aggregate, dropped into the Europa League. Later, speaking on a stream with almost self-irony, Pique said that yes, with his arms outstretched the moment looked like a disaster, but he still would not have reached the ball. And he added that if it had not been for that mistake, the Kings League might never have been born.
The creation of the league fit perfectly into Gerard's business interests. Even before the end of his playing career, the defender invested in Andorra, taking the club from the fifth tier of Spanish football up to Segunda, and he also took part in rebooting the tennis Davis Cup. The Kings League became the next step – a media football project designed to bring back to football the young generation that had escaped to TikTok and Twitch.
Football as a Video Game: Dice, Power-Ups and Presidential Penalties
Pique's main bet is not just the 7-a-side format, but the feeling of a computer game transferred onto a real pitch. He made popular streamers and former football stars club presidents so that viewers would see familiar faces even before the teams come out onto the field.
But it is the rules that get talked about the most. At the end of each half, it is the club presidents who take the penalties – this way Pique forces the owners to be not just faces for presentations, but active participants in the show. During the match, a giant die is rolled, and it randomly gives teams power-ups: for example, a goal that counts as two for a limited period of time, or a temporary sin-bin for an opposition player.
Even the opening kick-off has turned into an attraction. The ball is dropped from a box fixed under the roof, the teams line up on their own goal lines and effectively start a sprint – whoever reaches the ball first gets the initial possession.
The format worked. In a very short time, the Kings League has grown into an international project: new divisions have appeared in Latin America, Italy, France and Brazil. The Kings League Latin America final in 2024 drew 58,000 spectators to the stands. The sponsorship pool looks like that of a top league: adidas, Spotify, the Prime drink from KSI and Logan Paul, and the major Spanish bank Banco Santander are all on board. Before one of the new seasons they also announced a partnership with UNICEF – media football clearly feels comfortable in the company of global brands.
And against this backdrop, the Kings League is becoming more and more closely connected with Barcelona.
When Camp Nou Turned into a Media Football Arena
The first big overlap happened in January 2023. Pique approached Barça president Joan Laporta with the idea of staging the debut season's Final Four at Camp Nou.
Laporta even came to the league's press conference and described the deal in detail. According to him, Pique is an integral part of Barcelona's history, so it was hard to turn down the proposal. The club was to receive a percentage of sponsorship deals and ticket sales – a win-win story for everyone. The only thing that really surprised Laporta was the attendance forecast: he openly admitted that he had not expected almost 90,000 spectators at a media football final.
At the same time, according to Pique's recollections, the president did not immediately understand what he was getting involved in. Over breakfast Gerard tried to explain the format, and at the end of the conversation Laporta admitted, “Honestly, I'm not even sure I understand what you're talking about.” But in the end the two sides still managed to reach an agreement.
On 26 March 2023, the Final Four took place at Camp Nou and turned into a full-scale show. Pique made a spectacular entrance by helicopter, and one of the partners even suggested that he parachute into the centre circle with the ball – the idea, however, remained at the script stage. Laporta was also in the stands and at one point jumped up and down along with the fans to the chant “Whoever isn't jumping is a Madridista.”
A total of 92,522 spectators came to the stadium – just short of a complete sell-out. Barcelona received more than 2.5 million euros – a serious revenue stream for a club that is constantly looking for new sources of income. From the stage, Pique thanked Barça and Laporta, calling the evening a historic one for the Kings League.
Yamal, Kounde, Pedri and Raphinha: True Stars of the Media League World
The success of the show at Camp Nou did not bypass the first team players. Gradually, Barça's current footballers began to take an ever greater interest in the Kings League and to get involved in it themselves.
In the summer of 2025, Lamine Yamal launched his own club called “Capital”. The young winger regularly appears in the team's TikTok clips, drops into the league's studio and even shows up at press conferences. Before a match against Porcinos, he poured fuel on the fire ahead of another mini-Clásico against Real, accusing the opponents of constantly complaining and cheating.
Capital reached the quarterfinals directly in its very first season, and Yamal quickly made his mark from the spot – he converted presidential penalties in matches against Ultimate Móstoles and the same Porcinos.
In April 2025, Jules Kounde took a penalty in the French Kings League for 360 Nation – he struck it into the corner, but the goalkeeper saved. In the autumn, after scoring against Móstoles, Yamal joked that he had clearly shown Jules how such penalties are supposed to be taken.
Back in 2023, Pedri and Raphinha openly said that they would gladly play in the Kings League if not for their contracts and Barça's hectic schedule. In the near future, Robert Lewandowski might also appear within the media league ecosystem: the Kings League World Cup is kicking off in Brazil, and Argentina with Agüero, Brazil with Kaká and Colombia with James Rodríguez have already been announced. Whether Lewandowski's team will join this list remains a mystery for now, but the temptation is obvious.
The Blaugrana Media Ecosystem: Insiders, Legends and the Dream of Messi
It is not only current Barça players who have made their mark in the Kings League. For example, one of the main insiders around the club, Gerard Romero, has a team called “Jijantes”, which won the league's club world championship in 2024. In September, Mikhail Prokopiev joined them – he is known from the Russian Media League and a standout match for “Amkal” in the 2022/23 Russian Cup, where he provided three assists. In the Kings League, Prokopiev scored two goals in four games.
After leaving his position as Barcelona head coach, Pique also invited Xavi to play in the tournament. Xavi politely declined, admitting that he did not feel physically ready to take the field. At the same time, he noted that he was aware of the success of Pique's project and sincerely wished the league all the best, calling it an impressive show.
If we include former Barça stars as well, the list of participants becomes even more impressive. Sergio Agüero runs the club Kunisport in Latin America, and Neymar has launched a team called Furia. Pique has repeatedly said in interviews that his biggest dream is to see Lionel Messi in the Kings League. In his view, the ideal scenario would be Leo ending his professional career and moving into the world of media football as a club president or even a player-president.
Barça Between Tradition and TikTok: Is It Ready for Its Own Media Club?
Why is Barcelona so closely tied to the Kings League? The simplest answer is the figure of Pique himself – he maintains personal contact with the hierarchy and the players and constantly invites them into the world of his tournament. In 2023, defender Ronald Araújo said outright that the team has a special relationship with Gerard and that he regularly calls on them to attend Kings League matches.
But there is also a strategic layer. From the very start of the partnership, Laporta emphasised that traditional football is losing its young audience, and that a club which claims to be global is obliged to be present where teenagers and young adults actually live – on streaming platforms, in short-form content and in interactive formats. The Kings League fits this brief perfectly: high tempo, unconventional rules, direct communication with the audience and a sense of show that breaks down the usual distance between stars and fans.
Laporta himself called Pique's project a modern and unconventional form of football that helps Barça plug into new forms of entertainment and expand its audience. For Pique, it is a way to prove that football can live at a different pace and within a different narrative. For the club, it is a platform where it can earn money and at the same time avoid losing its connection with a generation that less and less often watches a classic 90-minute match to the end.
Against this backdrop, the question no longer sounds like a provocation, but like the logical next step: perhaps it really is time for Barça to launch its own media club in the Kings League – with the same colours and the same crest, but a completely different format of the game?
