Continuing from the last post, the five Madrid players featured there are all on the preliminary list of 30 for Spain’s World Cup squad, namely (number of caps in parantheses), Iker (102), Sergio Ramos (57), Arbeloa (13), Xabi Alonso (66) and Raúl Albiol (22). Two other players with Madrid pasts made it as well – Juan Mata (7) and Álvaro Negredo (4).
Meanwhile, Pepe (24) made Portugal’s provisional list of 24, which also included – no surprise there – Cristiano Ronaldo (69 – appropriate, no?).
In other la roja news, Sergio Ramos, Iker Casillas and my favorite Madrid coach of the last 10 years Vicente del Bosque presented a book, “Los secretos de la roja” (The Secrets of the Spanish national team), shown in the above picture.
Iker wrote the prologue, and the book also talks about incidents during the Eurocopa, the card games, the music playlists, and the bets between the players. Sergio said that he doesn’t have a playlist for the World Cup yet, since he hasn’t been assured a place on the final squad yet.
I NEED that book in my life and am going to do my best to get my hands on a copy of it! (I had previously bought a copy of “Podemos” because I thought it would be like that, but it turned out to talk more about Cuatro’s coverage of the Eurocopa than what went on between the players. Iker wrote a prologue for that too).
Sergio wore his favorite trompe-l’œil sweater (and interestingly enough, a ring on his wedding finger), while Iker showed up in a brown leather jacket – thank goodness it’s now warm enough in Madrid to go out without skinny white scarves!
In the meantime, I guess this is also a good time to say that during this summer, when there won’t be a lot of Real Madrid news, I’ll be turning my attention to the Spanish national team and writing about them here. There’s not a lot on there yet, since Madrid has been keeping me very, very busy but once the season is over, expect a lot more! And expect the same things you’ll find here, i.e. no serious game analyses and lots of superficial fashion analyses!
If there’s anything you’d like to see on there, just let me know!
One final note – posting will be a bit spotty this week and next as I’m traveling but I’ll do my best to stay updated! Besos!