The Barcelona defender recalled his beginner days in the Old Trafford locker room, and how one phone call sent the Irish midfielder into a frenzy.
The Barcelona youth was signed by Sir Alex Ferguson in 2004, and the then defensive midfield starlet spend four years at the Theatre of Dreams, before returning to Catalonia in 2008 for a mere £5 million.
On The Players’ Tribune, the 32 year old recollected his days with the Red Devils, and one special incident with his cell phone which made the Irishman go crazy in the dressing room to such an extent that Pique would “nearly sh*t himself!”
“One of my very first matches at Old Trafford, we were in the dressing room getting ready, and I was nervous as hell,” the Spanish international told the media outlet.
“Imagine it – I’m 18 years old, and I’m sitting in that little dressing room putting on my socks next to Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ryan Giggs and Rio Ferdinand. I wanted to be invisible. I was thinking, ‘Just do your job and go unnoticed’.
“So we’re sitting there waiting for the gaffer (Alex Ferguson) to come in and speak to us, and I’m literally sitting right next to Roy Keane. The dressing room is so small that our legs are almost touching. There’s no space at all.”
“It’s dead quiet. All of a sudden, you could hear this little vibration. Very soft. Roy is looking around the room.”
“I realise it’s me. It’s my cell phone. I left it on vibrate, and it’s in the pocket of my pants, stuffed in the clothes bag that’s hanging right behind Roy’s head.”
“Roy can’t find where the noise is coming from. Now he’s looking around the room like a maniac.”
“His eyes are darting everywhere, and he’s trying to figure it out. You know the famous scene with Jack Nicholson in The Shining, when he bursts through the door? That’s what he looked like.
“He screams out to everybody, ‘Whose phone is that?!’. Silence. He asks again. Silence. He asks a third time. ‘Whose. Bloody. F*****g. Phone. Is. That?!’
“Finally, I spoke up, like a little boy. Very softly, I said, ‘I’m so sorry. It’s mine.’ Roy lost his mind! He went nuts in front of everybody! It was incredible. I almost shit myself. But it was a good lesson.”
“Now, in 2018, everything is different. All these kids are on their iPhones before the matches. But back then, in 2006? It was a different world. You didn’t do that. Especially not at United. Not in Roy’s dressing room. It was one of a thousand mistakes that I made when I was at United.”
Piqué admitted that this was just one of numerous mistakes he made during his spell with United.
Keane has been infamous for his meltdowns regarding phone calls- one incident during the 47-year old’s managerial spell at Ipswich where he lambasted a reporter for keeping his phone on during a press conference. Watch it below-