Gerard Piqué, the highly decorated former Spain, Barcelona, and Manchester United footballer, has many reasons to love the sport. The three-time Champions League winner and World Cup champion made millions playing at the peak of the game with some of the greatest players of all time, including Lionel Messi.
But, much like the Gen Z audience he has captivated with a breakaway sport, he has grown tired of the game that made him a multimillionaire.
As a response, Piqué founded the Kings League, a sport probably unfamiliar to many of the fans that followed the Barcelona legend growing up, but is fast becoming a hit with attention-deficient, younger viewers.
What is the Kings League?
It felt appropriate to be speaking with Pique at London’s Twickenham Stadium, the home of England Rugby and the host of the English leg of the global Rugby Sevens tournament. That represents a niche version of the 15-a-side game, with fewer players and much shorter games.
Piqué, however, had other sports on his mind when creating the Kings League.
A Kings League game starts like a water polo match, with a ball in the center and players beginning at the goal line, rushing to gain possession when the whistle blows. Each team starts with one outfield player and one goalkeeper before players are gradually called into the game to make a seven-a-side matchup.
There are other zany rules, like an orange ball replacing a white one in the final phase of the match.
Six games are played through the day on Sunday, similar to how American sports cannibalize a schedule. The Kings League’s female equivalent, the Queens League, plays through a Saturday.
Internet influencers, mainly Twitch streamers, are the team’s managers, selecting players through a U.S. franchise-style draft process.
The league has leveraged some of the biggest influencers in Spain, its original market, to grow its audience. That includes Ibai Llanos, a streamer with more than 17 million followers on Twitch, who runs Porcinos FC.
Former players, including ex-Manchester United star Javier “Chicharito” Hernández and former Real Madrid midfielder James Rodriguez, also manage teams.
The whole concept of the King’s League, from its shortened games to influencer managers, is handcrafted to appeal to the 18-35 demographic. Speaking at the Leader’s Week London, Piqué described the format as “football with a video game.”
“Sport is not only competing…
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