In addition to his footballing exploits, Gerard Pique has got his hands in a few other pies and his latest venture is his most bizarre by a long way.
Incredibly, the Barcelona defender, along with Twitch streamer Ibai Llanos, has organised the inaugural Balloon World Cup.
The official event happened in Tarragona, Spain, and had 32 different countries taking part.
The concept actually came from a family on Tik-Tok who started playing the game to pass the time during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Instead of just doing Zoom quizzes, siblings Antonio, Diego and Isabel from Oregon in the United States went viral for their balloon antics.
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The rules are simple but have just been made that more official. The ball is knocked up in the air and cannot touch the floor or else the other player gets the point.
The first event was played in an 8m x 8m court and had a number of items of furniture, as well as a small car, in the space for obstacles.
There's a referee, players wear helmets to protect themselves and we're being deadly serious when we say that this needs to be in the next Olympics.
It's pure entertainment as players scramble to keep the ball up in the air and give it their all.
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Francesco de la Cruz from Peru ended up being crowned the first ever winner, beating Jan Spiess 6-2 in the final.
Footage of the event has been doing the rounds and it's just absolutely fantastic.
"It's been amazing, it's something totally different. Sometimes you have to get out of your comfort zone and try new things," Pique said of the tournament, as per Reuters.
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Be right back, just signing up for next year's Balloon World Cup.
Featured Image Credit: Image: TwitterTopics: Gerard Pique, Barcelona
