Spanish Footballer Albert Riera Finishes Runner-up In Poker Tournament

Spanish soccer player Albert Riera made all the poker headline recently after it was revealed that while his team Udinese was playing Chievo Verona in the Italian Series A, the 32-year-old was competing at a poker tournament in Solvenia, instead. Riera subsequently cashed in at the €270 ($335) event in second spot for a €3,550 ($4,400) payday, which is not bad going for a man who is on an £8 million contract with Udinese, and gets paid around €2.5 million per season to play football at the club.
Interestingly, Albert Rierat has since had his contract terminated, and after the news was announced, speculation started that his departure was due to his errant poker playing antics. However, Albert Riera has since moved to quash the rumour, and posted the following message on his twitter account recently:
“To clarify, the termination of the contract is by mutual agreement, not due to reasons outside the football.”
Albert Riera’s tweet would seem to correspond to the official line advocated by his former club, which stated on its club webpage that “the contract with the footballer Albert Ortega Riera has been terminated by mutual consent [and we wish him] all the best for his future career.”
Nevertheless, there was certainly no love lost between Riera and Italian club Udinese, and after joining Udinese in March 2014, Riera found himself loaned out to English Club Watford, which isn’t even in the country’s top league. Before then Riera was at Liverpool until 2011, before then spending one season at Olympiacos in Greece, and then Galatasary in Turkey. Not disguising his thoughts over Udinese, Albert Riera described the Italian club as “the worst club I’ve ever played for.”
Although his football career is on a bit of a downward slope, at least his poker career seems to be hitting some form. Perhaps now he can devote a bit more of his time to the card game without fear of becoming the attention of unwelcome headlines.