Over at RTVE, there is a good article talking about the plane ride to Munich on Friday (there is also an article in today’s Marca about this). If you’ve been reading my blogs for a while, you must know that I love these kinds of articles, because I love getting behind the scenes information on the teams!
And so, we find out that Sergio Ramos and Iker Casillas sat in the front of their section (sadly, it does not mention whether they sat together, but I would assume so) and the newcomers in the back. Khedira was in the last row, with Pedro León and Canales across the aisle from him. Near them were the canteranos, as befitting their position on the team. Xabi Alonso, wearing shorts, wandered around the airplane to talk with Jorge Valdano and El Buitre, who were sitting in the front row. Iker was wearing shorts too, with black socks and black sneakers. The majority of the rest of the guys were listening to music via huge headphones (Cristiano, Drenthe, Benzema). Carvalho was wearing a giant pair of sunglasses.
José Mourinho sat behind all of them, supposedly to keep an eye on the team, although that seat (22C) was not supposed to be his (it belonged to a journalist, as it was in the press section of the plane). No one sat beside TSO, who was listening to music also via a pair of giant orange headphones. Mourinho asked for some newspapers, not sports ones, but “serious” ones, although he just flipped through them rapidly. One article, an interview with the Spanish actress Elsa Pataky, caught his eye and he spent a couple minutes reading it. He also flipped through Marca, according to the article in today’s Marca (he put on reading glasses for that). As the flight left, Mou acceded to shutting off his music, but DID NOT put his seat in the upright position. He also got up to get his sunglasses, which led the flight attendant to say over the intercom that everybody should be seated. After asking for a glass of water, Mourinho put his headphones back on and went to sleep. At one point, with his foot sticking out in the aisle, a flight attendant tripped over him. The next time the flight attendant came around, Mou joked with him, “what happened, is it because you’re a fan of Barcelona?”
Also sleeping was Sergio Canales, nine rows ahead. This detail brings back memories of Raúl: when Rulo was 17 and had just been called up to train with the first team, Jorge Valdano, then the coach of Madrid, thought he would be nervous and so he went to the back of the bus one day when they were traveling to make sure he was alright. Raúl was sleeping soundly and Valdano knew then that he had a special player.
There’s also a video on the page linked to above, in which you can see the four musketeers minus Arbeloa walking together upon arrival in Munich.