It hurt a lot to write something new, because that meant that the lovely picture of Iker shaving would not be on the top of the page anymore.
The best (Real Madrid) Argentine accent I’ve ever heard is still Fernando Redondo, but it’s always a pleasure to hear any Argentine player speak. The latest one to do so was Ángel di María, who spoke on the El Larguero radio talk show program yesterday – have a listen here. And here are the highlights, including a few that Real Madrid left out in their synopsis.
– Ángel’s nickname is “El Fideo,” because he was so thin (that 3/4 of the bed was still empty when he was lying in it).
– his mother Diana used to take him to training sessions on bicycle, and Ángel sat both in front of her and behind her (depending on the bicycle). The trip took half an hour. She did this in part because she had a lot of faith in him and always believed he would become someone.
– when he was five, he scored 64 goals for Torito.
– in all of his childhood pictures, a ball appears with him. He was a very nervous, hyper kid, and broke a lot of things. He didn’t like school, and doesn’t like reading.
– his father was a coalman, and Ángel starting at the age of 12 used to help him out by lugging the bags of coal around (even though he was so thin), although his mother would yell when he entered the house and left black dust everywhere. He would do this in his free time, when he didn’t have football practice.
– when he moved to Lisbon to play for Benfica, his parents and sisters accompanied him. Ángel has two sisters, both younger, who are now 20 and 16 years of age. He says they’re both “muy lindas.”
– his idol when he was young was Kily González, because they played the same position and he liked how he played. He didn’t watch much European football as he was growing up, just Argentine football.
– none of his childhood friends are footballers. He has a tattoo of the names of the seven friends (including himself), which they all got when he went to Portugal. These are his friends from his old Churrasco neighborhood in Rosario, and he now communicates with them via text messages; they’re the first people who message him when he scores a goal.
– Ángel lives in La Finca now with his girlfriend, and they’re both very happy in Madrid. They met via his cousin, who’s good friends with his girlfriend, and it was Ángel who asked to be introduced to her. Ángel’s parents still live in Rosario, in the old neighborhood where Ángel bought them a new house. They come once in a while, about every three months, and Ángel will go home for Christmas.
– the only time he’s been at Bernabéu before becoming a Real Madrid player was the famous game against Alcorcón last year.
– he sits next to Pedro León and Özil in the locker room (they sit in numerical order). Ángel says Özil has learned a “few bad words” in Spanish already.
– he hasn’t talked with Alfredo di Stéfano, just greeted him during the team photo session earlier this week.
– he gets along with Cristiano, talks a lot with him, says he’s a very humble person, and that he’s a different person on the field and off. Cristiano calls him “Di” or “Fideo.”
– his closest confidante on the team is Gago, since they’ve known each other for a while, from the youth teams of the Argentine national team. They won a gold medal in the 2008 Olympics together, and have been very close since then. Ángel says he doesn’t know Higuaín as well as he does Gago, but is getting to know him.