Robert Pirès, world champion with France in 1998 and former player of Arsenal and Villarreal among other teams, has Spanish roots, specifically on the part of his mother, a native of Asturias. Now he has settled with his family in Eivissa and there he continues to live his great passion, football.
As revealed by the Diario de Ibiza, Pirès got involved in October, shortly after arriving in the Pitiusas Islands, with the Peña Deportiva in the town of Santa Eulalia del Río as a member of the coaching staff. His involvement is purely vocational, without remuneration, despite the fact that he works every day with the team that plays in the Second Division B.
Pires has joined the staff of Raúl Casañ, coach of a Peña Deportiva who gained notoriety in this edition of the Copa del Rey by eliminating Sabadell by penalties and then falling to Valladolid in the round of 32.
Readaptor, among other functions
Among other duties, Pires acts as a rehabilitation worker, working with injured players until they are able to rejoin the team. A work that he was already doing at Arsenal until recently before moving to Ibiza last August with his family.
The relationship between Pirès and Peña Deportivo began in summer when the two sons of the world champion in 1998 and the European champion in 2000 with the French national team, Alessio, 9, and Theo, 13, joined the club's lower divisions.
Since August installed in Ibiza with his family
“My wife, my three children and I decided in August to leave London and move to Ibiza because Brexit and the covid changed life in England a lot,” Pirès explains to Diario de Ibiza. “We rented a house in Santa Eulalia and we have all adapted very well to the island.”
It was in September when one afternoon, while the first team stretched on the field, the player Raúl Gómez thought he saw one of his football idols, Robert Pirès, in the distance.
Raúl Gámez discovered him
“We agreed at Villarreal, I in the subsidiary and he in the first team, but we had never spoken. And suddenly I see him at La Peña. At first I doubted it was him, but I yelled 'Robert?'… And he turned around. We started talking and he told me that he would love to get involved in the club, so I introduced him to Raúl Casañ ”, Gómez tells Diario de Ibiza.
Pirès asked Casañ if there was any possibility that he could collaborate with the team. “You have the doors of the club open for whatever you want,” replied the Valencian coach. And so it was that a world champion began to join as a member of the coaching staff.
Your titles as a player
Pirès, born in Reims (France), is 47 years old and with the 'bleus' he won the 1998 World Cup, Euro 2000 and two Confederations Cups in 2001 and 2003. At club level his best stage was undoubtedly the one he lived in the Arsenal (2000-2006) by winning the Premier League twice (2002 and 2004), twice the FA Cup (2003 and 2005) and reached the final of the Champions League in 2006 losing to barça in Paris 82-1) .