Pedro Rodríguez retires: Camp Nou farewell today

Pedro retires at 39 and says goodbye at the Spotify Camp Nou at 11:30 today. Plus the record nobody had managed before: scoring in six competitions in 2009.

Pedro Rodríguez's retirement now has a stage and a start time: today, Friday 9 October, at 11:30, in the Auditori 1899 at the Spotify Camp Nou. Two days after telling the world on social media that he is hanging up his boots at 39, Pedro returns to the place where he became a footballer to say goodbye with an official tribute and a press conference in which he will explain his decision. With him goes one of the last active members of Spain's 2010 World Cup-winning squad, and the owner of a record nobody had managed before him: scoring in six different official competitions in a single year.

The news broke on Wednesday 7 October in a video filmed on the Camp Nou pitch, with his biggest trophies laid out around him. The message was as unfussy as his football: "Gracias fútbol por hacerme tan feliz" — thank you, football, for making me so happy.

Pedro Rodríguez retires: "I feel the time is right"

In the video, the forward from Tenerife looks back over almost two decades in the game and explains why the Camp Nou was the only place to close the circle. It starts where it all began, on a dirt pitch on his home island, and ends in the stadium where he won everything there was to win.

He has not said what comes next. He talks about a "new stage", but there is no job, club or project attached to it yet. He calls time on his career after leaving Lazio at the end of last season, following five years in Rome during which he wore the captain's armband for the club.

The 2009 record: first to score in six competitions

If one fact sums Pedro up, it is 2009. That year, with Pep Guardiola in the dugout, Barcelona won all six trophies they competed for — and the winger, promoted from the B team wearing the number 33, scored in every one of them. He became the first player in history to find the net in six different official competitions in the same calendar year:

1. La Liga
2. Copa del Rey
3. Champions League
4. Spanish Super Cup
5. UEFA Super Cup: the only goal of the final against Shakhtar Donetsk in Monaco, 115 minutes in
6. Club World Cup: the 89th-minute headed equaliser against Estudiantes in Abu Dhabi, before Messi won it 2-1 in extra time

That habit of turning up in finals never left him. In the 2011 Champions League final at Wembley he opened the scoring against Manchester United in a 3-1 win, and in August 2015, in his last big act for Barça, he settled a wild 5-4 UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla in extra time in Tbilisi.

Pedro Rodríguez's trophies, clubs and career numbers

For Barcelona he played 321 official matches, scored 99 goals and lifted 20 trophies. Add Chelsea, Roma, Lazio and Spain and he finishes with more than 770 official appearances and 25 major honours.

He made his Spain debut in May 2010 under Vicente del Bosque and within weeks was starting the World Cup semi-final against Germany and the final against the Netherlands. Two years on he added Euro 2012, won in Kyiv. Throw in the Europa League he lifted with Chelsea and he belongs to a very short list of players who have won the World Cup, the Euros, the Champions League and the Europa League.

Why Pedro's goodbye hits so hard at Barça

Pedro was never the headline act in that side. He shared the front line with Messi, Villa, Eto'o and Henry, and his real value lay in the things that rarely make the highlights: pressing the moment the ball was lost, the runs off the ball, the tactical discipline Guardiola demanded from his wide men. That is why his farewell taps into something bigger than a list of medals.

• It is the story of the kid who arrived at La Masia from Tenerife in 2004 and ended up starting a World Cup final.
• He stands for what he himself calls the best Barça side in history.
• His longevity is rare for a winger: he was still competing in Serie A beyond his 38th birthday.

A home weekend for Barça

The farewell lands just as La Liga returns from the international break. Barcelona are at home this weekend as part of La Quiniela matchday 12, Spain's classic 15-match pools coupon, which this week mixes eight top-flight games with six from the second tier. If you fancy a look at the fixtures before Saturday's deadline, that page has every match and the prediction window.

And if today has you and your mates reminiscing about that six-trophy year, why not turn the arguments into something a little more competitive? On quiniPrats you can set up a free prediction league with friends and see who calls each matchday best. New to it? Here's how it works.