EXCLUSIVE: Djibril Cisse back on the pitch for the Kings League
The shirt of his team, Los Troncos, is green like the one he wore for Panathinaikos from 2009 to 2011. "They chose the right colours," he jokes. His hairstyle obviously matches, because Djib and style have always been one and the same.
Like Ronaldinho, the Arles native - five years on from when he last played competitive football - came to do some freelance work for Pique's wildly imaginative competition, and the eccentric concept of the tournament fits his personality perfectly, even if he remains a little shy when answering Flashscore's questions after his team's 7-3 victory over Pio FC.
But how did he end up in the Cupra Arena, a huge hangar in Barcelona's Zona Franca usually reserved for the ballet of trucks unloading their goods?
"I had already watched a few Kings League matches and was able to talk to one of the members," he says. "That's how I got in touch with Pertxitaa (a streamer with 2.4 million subscribers on Twitch), the president of the Troncos.
Still a scorer at heart
The Kings League is unlike anything Cisse has taken part in before, which was clear to see on his debut.
With two minutes left in each half, in a touch of absurdity worthy of the latest Fast and Furious film, six players from each team had to stand to the side to make way for a one-on-one between the two remaining, both of whom had to take shots from the centre circle.
"It's fun and it shouldn't be compared with football," pleads the former OM player.
"It's another sport, a derivative of football like futsal or beach soccer. It's different and attractive. There is a more playful aspect."
On the pitch, his competitive reflexes quickly returned. Moving around, cheering after Pio FC's opening goal, wanting to play with his team-mates: Cisse wants to do well, and you can see it in every shot, even if the conditions are difficult:
"I arrived in Barcelona at 11:00 this morning, I haven't trained with my team-mates, I've never played with them," he said. "The pitch is very, very small, but I'm a player who has always liked to have space."
The 41-year-old is still a goalscorer at heart, and it is clear that he's saddened by the fact that he did not score.
He came close on several occasions, but on a synthetic pitch, with a very low defensive line, it's not so easy, even for a player of this calibre, a former top scorer in Ligue 1, and he feels his team-mates could have provided him with better service too.
"This setup compromises a lot of things, but I think they could have tried to find me a bit more," stated the former Liverpool man.
"My team-mates didn't dare enough, I think. But apart from that, the experience is very cool."
First French star invited to participate
Sixteen cameras, a VAR booth: Kosmos is going all out to broadcast the matches on Twitch and TV channels, starting with the local and influential TV3, who are broadcasting with a slight delay. The success is growing and the model is already being exported to Brazil with a certain Neymar as its figurehead.
The French market could be of interest to Pique and it seems no coincidence that Cisse is the first French star to be invited.
Could he be the poster boy of the Kings League in France? He doesn't want to say too much but, like the former Barca defender, he knows how to recognise good ideas:
"I saw Gerard earlier, we talked a little bit. We'll stay in touch and then we'll see..." It's not out of the question that we'll see Cisse in this competition again.