The latest news, ranked in importance to the club. But, if you want to go in the order of the importance of news to know when discussing with female friends, start reading from the last one!
One. José Mourinho has been given a two-game suspension for insulting the referee during the game against Murcia. This means that he will miss the games against Sporting this weekend, and Athletic next weekend, but will be back for the clash against Barcelona. Aitor Karanka will take over the reins from Mou during those two games, and he’ll also be the one to speak to the press in the habitual coach press conference on the day before games and after the games.
Two. Real Madrid has announced that Zinedine Zidane has been named presidential adviser to the first team. He’ll be responsible for “optimizing first team working conditions” and as such, have constant contact with the president and the coach. Zizou will also especially participate in all Champions League events and acts and travel on a regular basis with the team in this competition, as well as attend training sessions and concentraciones.
Three. The Barcelona-Madrid match will be played on a Monday (Nov. 29), and a lot of people don’t like that. But keep in mind that Madrid has ended up as league champions after the two times that the teams played on a Monday. The first time was in 1964 (due to Holy Week), and the second in 1972. Another bit of history: out of the 160 match-ups, 102 have been played on Sunday, 48 on Saturday, four on Wednesday, two on Monday, two on Thursday, one on Tuesday and one on Friday.
Speaking of that game, we’ll get a preview when Spain takes on Portugal in a friendly on Nov. 17. That’s because Madrid will send five Spanish players (Iker, Xabi, Arbeloa, Albiol, Sergio) and three Portuguese players (Cris, Pepe, Carvalho), while Barcelona is contributing eight players (all from Spain – Puyol, Piqué, Xavi, Iniesta, Biscuits, Pedro, Villa, Valdés).
Four. Cristiano Ronaldo showed up to support girlfriend Irina Shayk when she was awarded the “top international model” award at the 2010 Top Glamour Awards. They took pains not to be photographed together, but they were caught sitting together and leaving the Hotel Ritz together.
Cris looks okay here from the waist up, but he was wearing white pants.
Five. Thanks to reader Julia, who provided this, and also kindly translated for us: Mesut Özil and Anna-Maria Lagerblom have split, with Anna-Maria confirming the news, saying “Yes, we broke up!” while Özil simply said that he didn’t want to talk about his private life. They had started dating in May 2009, and in the summer of this year, they and Anna-Maria’s son Montry from a previous relationship moved to Madrid. Anna-Maria told Bild that she didn’t like the way of living there (alone in Madrid, far from her family, with a partner that wasn’t always around) and so she and her son returned to Germany three weeks ago. She said, “at first I only wanted to holiday, but then I decided that I wouldn’t go back to Mesut.” She adds, “we didn’t fight at all. Mesut Özil is a great person. But it just didn’t work anymore.”
That’s sad! But maybe Özil can now get a Spanish girlfriend? His language skills will improve very quickly if he does!!
And from reader LaBlanca: some videos of Mesut at the Bambi awards here and here (in German). Bonus here (it was a suggested video on the side of one of those two videos).
Six. From reader Anja:
Seven. Xabi Alonso finished fourth in Don Balón‘s annual ranking of the most “guapo” footballers/coaches (Iker won the “award” last year, meaning he wasn’t eligible this year). Aitor Ocio (Athletic) was first, followed by Fernando Llorente (Athletic) and Dani Osvaldo (Espanyol). Then came Xabi, with the top five rounded out by Gerard Piqué (Barcelona).
I love Basque men (let’s just consider Fernando one for now), and I guess the jury did too!!!