Piqué Reveals Wild Dubai Night Out With Neymar Before Qatar Airways Event: 'We Went Directly Without Sleeping'
Gerard Piqué has lifted the lid on a secret overnight trip he and Neymar made from Qatar to Dubai for a party — before heading straight to an official Barcelona sponsor event.
Gerard Piqué has been doing the podcast rounds and, fair play to him, he’s not short of a story or two. The former Barcelona and Spain centre-back has just dropped a proper gem about his time at the Nou Camp — specifically, a mad nocturnal adventure with Neymar that somehow stayed under wraps until now.
The Setup
Cast your mind back to that golden Barça era — Messi running the show, Suárez battering defenders, Neymar doing things that shouldn’t be physically possible, and Piqué orchestrating chaos both on and off the pitch. Turns out, what happened off it was even more eventful than we thought.
Appearing on the podcast Historias de Fútbol, Piqué revealed that he and Neymar had been sent to Qatar for a Qatar Airways sponsorship activation — a fairly standard bit of commercial duty for two of the biggest names in world football at the time.
The Problem With Qatar
Here’s where it gets interesting. The event was scheduled for the following morning, which left them with an evening to kill. The issue? Qatar’s nightlife scene wasn’t exactly going to scratch that particular itch.
So what do you do when you’re Gerard Piqué, you’ve got Neymar next to you, and you’re stuck in Doha with nothing to do? You improvise, don’t ya.
The Dubai Detour
- Without telling anyone, the pair quietly chartered a private jet
- Destination: Dubai — purely for a night out
- They didn’t go alone either; they brought a crew of between 15 and 20 mates along for the ride
- The party, by all accounts, went on well into the early hours
The kicker? They had to be back and presentable for the Qatar Airways event at 10am the next morning. They touched down at 8:30am — no sleep, straight off the plane and into the official commitment.
Running on Empty
Piqué told the story laughing, which tells you everything about the mentality of that dressing room. He admitted they were absolutely shattered — “very tired” and it was “very tough” — but the memory clearly still brings a smile to his face.
The mental image of two of the world’s best footballers rocking up to a corporate sponsorship event in Doha, still buzzing from a Dubai night out with 20 of their mates, is genuinely brilliant. Absolutely brass neck, the pair of them.
It’s a reminder of just how extraordinary that Barça squad was — not just the football, but the sheer larger-than-life energy of those lads. Whether you loved or loathed Piqué, you can’t say he didn’t live it large.