The World Cup winner arrived at Man United in 2004 from the impressive La Masia academy at Barcelona for free, having decided to not sign a professional contract with the Spanish giants but to instead move to England. However, the Spaniard has been open about his struggle to adjust to life in England and the culture shock he experienced early on in his career with the Red Devils.

While many will remember the star for his three Champions Leagues, numerous La Liga’s and Copa Del Rey’s on top of the 2010 World Cup and 2012 European Championship trophies he won with Barcelona and Spain later in his career, it wasn’t an easy start to life as a professional footballer for Pique, who claims that at the time, he wished he could go back in time and never arrive in England in the first place.

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“It was a very hard decision and when I took that decision, really after six months if I could’ve gone back [in time], I would’ve stayed at Barcelona,” Pique admitted on BBC Sport’s Football Daily Podcast. “But because you are young, you’re 17, and you think you can do whatever you want and beat everyone above you, I thought ‘Why not? Let’s go to Manchester and try myself’.

“It was tough. I left my home, my family, my friends, I went alone. My first year, I lived with a family in Manchester and for me, the food, the weather, the language, the culture, it was a big change. But it helped me, it helped me a lot to make me the person I am now, to make the career I had eventually. So yes, it was very difficult for me but I wouldn’t change it for anything though.

“It was difficult in the first few months for various reasons. One of them was that I wanted to play, I wanted to play more which is just something natural in a professional football player, especially someone at a young age. But in front of me, I had Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic who at that time were one of the best centre-back pairings in the world.

“Also I was living with the family that was kind of tough because I didn’t like the food, I was learning the language at the time and it was very difficult for me to communicate with them. Then after the first year, I was able to live alone and that change really helped me to be more independent and really enjoy that time at Manchester.”

The 37-year-old did, though, highlight the impact that Sir Alex Ferguson had on him as a youngster, claiming: “The manager was a second dad for me, I’ve always said that. Sir Alex Ferguson, he always had that quality of taking care of young players that were coming through.

“Also my teammates, I still have a great relationship with Rio, Wayne Rooney as well and we had a lot of young talents coming in from both the academy and abroad. When I was in the dressing room, I felt I was integrated and I’d adapted to the environment and we had a very good team. We won the Champions League in Moscow in 2008 against Chelsea, obviously that was the last season I was there before leaving to play for Barcelona again. Overall, my time at the club was incredible. Just the first six months were pretty tough.”

In his four years at the club, Pique helped the Red Devils win a Premier League, a League Cup, the FA Community Shield and the Champions League but the Spaniard can draw a clear line in the sand as to when he made up his mind to leave the club and head back to Barcelona in a move that would end up being the final transfer of his career.

“I remember very clearly that moment, we were playing against Barcelona in the semi-final first leg, 0-0 at the Camp Nou,” he reminisced. “Then, in the second game, we won 1-0 with [Paul] Scholsey scoring. In the first game, I remember Nemanja Vidic felt sick the night before and had to go to the hospital so the logical move was that I’d be playing that game.

“But three or four hours before the game, Alex Ferguson came up to my room and said, ‘Gerard, I know you’re close to joining Barcelona, I don’t want you to be put in a position where if today doesn’t go well, if you make a mistake or something happens, people can’t tell you that you did those things because you’re leaving the club and going to them, so I’d prefer to keep you on the bench.’

“For me, I was so excited to play at Camp Nou in the semi-final of the Champions League but not playing in that game was difficult for me. I understand the manager’s reasons for not playing me, but at that point, my focus was on moving to Barcelona from that point the next season.”