Spain fans see Gerard Pique as a villain – but he is vital to their hopes

Gerard Pique likes a joke – stink bombs on team flights, dressing up in a Halloween costume and walking into an opposing player’s press conference, making a humorous reference to Cristiano Ronaldo during Barcelona’s league title celebrations – but even his sense of humour is probably being tested by Spain supporters booing his every touch.

At least there was a new twist, with England supporters applauding and singing his name during last night’s friendly. The practical joker is a target for various reasons and the gags and capers form a part of the complex package of why he is seen as fair game.

The stink-bomb incident was a victimless crime, unless you were a Barcelona player on the same plane. The other two incidents tended to involve Real Madrid, and with Madrid supporters all over Spain there are always enough Real-leaning fans to give him a hard time.

When he led the Barcelona players into a post-match press conference being given by a Getafe player last weekend there was mild uproar, and when pictures of Barcelona’s visitors’ dressing room were leaked to the press showing fake blood smeared on mirrors and sinks, the scandal rumbled on for a few more days. Pique accused the Getafe president, Angel Torres, of leaking the images and suggested that Barcelona had not left the dressing room in the state the images showed. “We all know Angel Torres is a Real Madrid fan and would like to be the club’s president one day,” he said.

His Ronaldo gag came at the end of last season and was more entertaining than some of the the footage that made it into the Real Madrid forward’s portrait film “The Man”. Each player had taken his turn to walk out into the centre of the pitch and thank supporters and team-mates. When Pique’s turn came he thanked Kevin Roldan, the DJ who topped the bill at Ronaldo’s 30th birthday party and subsequently leaked images of the player dancing the night away just hours after Real had lost the city derby against Atletico 4-0. The subsequent “scandal” helped speed the season’s collapse. “I still think it’s funny,” he quipped earlier this week.

Pique is a character. One of those that we are constantly hearing the game now sadly lacks. Were he a Madrid joker he would probably get away with it, but as a Catalan he rubs up many of Spain’s supporters the wrong way.

It is easy to overplay the political angle. Spain have many Catalan players and they have been crucial in three big tournament wins this century. None of them are jeered when they play for Spain. Sergi Busquets and Jordi Alba are admired, the now-retired Xavi is adored. And if this was all about a player not being Spanish enough, then Diego Costa would be whistled at every turn, but he isn’t. Neither is Pique an especially militant Catalan. He has never made his view on the region’s push for separation from the rest of Spain and there is as much chance that he is part of the more or less 50 per cent who don’t want independence as the 50 per cent who do. But he is the embodiment of a self-assured “Barcelonismo” built on having won far more than Real Madrid since the turn of the century, and so anyone with a soft spot for the most successful team of the last century feels entitled to get upset.

England fans did themselves proud with their reaction, although in the past have not been completely innocent of the crime. Owen Hargreaves’ face never seemed to fit until he was England’s best performer at the 2006 World Cup. Ashley Cole and Frank Lampard also know what it feels like to not have everyone on their side at Wembley. Both were indispensable, and so is Pique for Spain.

It is clear that Spain need him more than ever. Their immense strength in depth – well illustrated last night when they were able to bring on Santi Cazorla for the injured Thiago Alcantara – is not so apparent at the back where, without Sergio Ramos to play alongside Pique, they were reduced to giving a rare start to Marc Bartray.

Pique represents another truth that is hard to swallow for the Real Madrid-supporting Spain fans – the team is still very reliant on Barça players. There were seven in last night’s starting line-up. There were no Real Madrid players on the pitch when the game got underway.

The tally dropped to six when Thiago went off and then five when Iniesta followed him at half-time, but second-half substitute Nolito is also a former Barça player.

The defensive short-fall could even lead to a cross-border move for French defender Aymeric Laporte, who plays for Athletic Bilbao and who is frustrated in the French Under-21 team and understood to be open to advances from Vicente del Bosque should he decide to make them. The Spain coach has gone on the record to say that Spain have tried for the French-born youngster in the past and will push again if they receive the right signals.

Spain fans’ reaction would be tested to the full then. Who would get the better reception – the player who has won the World Cup and the European Championship for Spain but happens to have been born in Catalonia or the Frenchman?