Gerard Piqué and Shakira are just friends. Really.

That is what the soccer star claimed, insisting he didn’t know anything about Shakira’s troubles in paradise with her ex (since August)-boyfriend Antonio de la Rúa.

According to the ElPais.com, the FC Barcelona star arrived in Spain from Zúrich and told reporters: “You all are giving me the news now.”

After starring in Shakira’s World Cup 2010 theme song “Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)” music video, Piqué has been rumored to be romantically linked to the pop star. But he has denied hooking up with the newly single, world-renowned Colombian hip-shaker.

“Shakira and I are just friends,” he insisted, “and that’s it”.

Barcelona-based newspaper El Periodico de Catalunya claimed they have had a string of secret encounters since then.

It said they both spent a night in the seven-room Hotel Atzaro in Ibiza last July. The footballer is said to have arrived and left wearing the same clothes. The paper also claimed they spent a weekend at a remote country house near the town of Tarrega, 70 miles west of Barcelona.

Last summer they are said to have enjoyed a meal together in the restaurant Raco d’en Cesc in central Barcelona. And in November they reportedly walked together on the beach at the resort of Blanes, 50 miles north of the city.

Shakira has previously denied reports of a romance. At a press conference last month in Barcelona she described the claims as a “waka-rumour” and added: “You shouldn’t take any notice of waka-rumours”.

You think they are “waka rumours” or “where there is smoke, there is fire”?