For example, a yellow card - disqualification for two minutes.

Gerard Pique has long been, first and foremost, a businessman, and only then a football player - he has so many projects and various businesses that it seems as if he played for Barcelona in his spare time from everything else. Now that his career is officially over, Piquet has more room to develop his business ideas - and it didn't take long. The former football player created his media league - Kings League - matches which started in the first days of January this year. Sergio Aguero has his team there, and yesterday Ronaldinho debuted in one of the clubs.

The Spanish analog of the IFL: a truncated format and a draft as the main feature

The main thing:

• The matches are 7x7.
• Each game consists of two 20-minute halves.
• There are 12 participants in the league.
• The games are played in the playoff format.

The main difference between the league is the draft, similar to what is in the NBA and NFL. Candidates go through a series of pre-tests based on which the president's score and rank - the best players are selected at random (goalkeepers are not singled out separately).

The draft took place at the end of December live - 120 out of 172 players were selected. Each president had 20 seconds to choose, and there were 10 rounds, with 52 participants on standby in case someone was forced to withdraw participation due to injury or illness. Through a draft, each leader could take 10 players for himself, and two more players were "guests" personally invited by the presidents.

Everyone who participated in the draft is collected on the site: each player has a card with their performance ratings and a short video clip.

Another feature is that each team can request one VAR check. The rest of the rules were chosen by the fans by voting on Twitter: this is how the permission to take numbers from 0 to 99 appeared, halves of 20 minutes, an unlimited number of substitutions, shootouts (penalties from the middle of the field) with a draw, two minutes of suspension with a yellow card, direct removal and five minutes without one player with red, and also the presence of secret cards. The latter is exciting: before each match, the team president can get one card from the deck with a reward - a two-minute or five-minute sanction for the opponent or a penalty. You can use the "secret weapon" once per match.

The season will end on March 26; the final matches will be held at Camp Nou - the corresponding decision was announced live on Twitch, after which ticket sales, according to Piqué, began to go off the scale.

Meet the teams! Iker Casillas and Kun Aguero have their own

Streamers and tiktokers run all the teams. Still, professional football players have also flown into the league - among the presidents are Casillas (his team is called 1K) and Aguero (his - Kunisports).


There are also professionals in the teams, but there are not so many of them - here are some of them:

• Chicharito (will play for the Porcinos team);
• Former Atlético Madrid and Manchester United goalkeeper Ricardo Lopez
• ex-defender of the Venezuelan club "La Vinotinto" Gabriel Ciquero;
• Juan Quero, who played for Rayo Vallecano, Elche, and Cordoba (finished football due to heart problems);
• Ferran Corominas, who used to play for Espanyol and Elche, recently joined Aguero's team;
• Kun, by the way, also plans to play a couple of matches.
• And Ronaldinho! He is on the same team as Chicharito.

The transfer of the Barcelona star was announced three days ago. It has yet to be determined how many more times he will play

The official Kings League Twitter account posted a video a couple of days ago in which Piqué and streamer Ibay Llanos, who manages the Porcinos team, is sitting in a cafe and trying to find a 12th player for the team (you can add him every week - usually this is either a veteran or a current player appearing for one match). The search was not going very well, so Pique, at some point, said: "Yes, you can find anyone already!" Then he called out to the man with his back to them, "What about this guy? Hey, you!" The man turned - it turned out to be Ronaldinho, who greeted the partners with his characteristic gesture.

In such an unusual way, the league announced that the legendary Brazilian would join Porcinos in the next round. "I just want to have fun and enjoy football," Ronaldinho said. Whether he will continue to play for the media league club has yet to be determined. Still, the organizers may convince him to stay: the number of broadcast views with his not-the-most-successful performance could have been more impressive. In seven hours, more than 2 million people connected to the life, and 500 thousand viewers watched the match on TikTok simultaneously, which beat the figures for the album's presentation by the eminent Spanish singer.

Ronaldinho and the team got to the stadium in a pink limousine (yes, it was all on the broadcast).

He entered the field to loud applause from the assembled spectators, including his son Joao Mendes - he recently signed a contract with the Barça youth team.

After a short warm-up, something happened that thousands of people at the screens were waiting for: in the fifth minute, Ronaldinho entered the field.

Sometime later, the Brazilian received the captain's armband.

Ronaldinho had two killer chances, but either the PIO defenders or the goalkeeper saved him. The match ended with a score of 0:0 and went to a penalty shootout, in which Porcinos lost 1:3.

"It was a very close game that broke all records," Llanos said after the game. "Ronaldinho played 35 minutes, and it shows that he put in the effort to try and bring us victory."

"To see Ronaldinho playing against you here is a fairy tale," said former Espanyol defender Alberto Lopo, who became the MVP of the match. "You always had to be careful with him. We turned on the game late, but it still turned on. It was hilarious".

27.02.2023