yesterday at Valdebebas…

Madrid held their normal training session yesterday, but with two differences:  one was the start time, which was in the afternoon rather than in the morning.  The second was the presence of Diego Armando Maradona, who was in Madrid visiting his daughter and grandson.  He dropped by the training session to see his good friend Mou (when Mou coached Inter, he had a photo of Maradona in his office) and chat with his former players Pipita and Di María, as well as fellow Argentine Garay, and for some reason, Sergio Ramos (who, if you remember, was called an hijo de puta by Maradona for a hard tackle against Messi in the last Madrid-Barcelona game).  Mou called Pipita over by saying, “Pipa, come over here, your father has come!”  Maradona left Valdebebas with a shirt signed by Mourinho, which said, “it embarrasses me to sign a shirt for Don Diego!  You’re number 1 and I adore you!”

Wow, who knew that Mou could be reduced to a blubbering teenage fangirl?  And I expected his handwriting to be neater… after all, Aitor Karanka has to read his notes all the time, and it can’t be easy, especially when it’s compressed in that little notebook.

The players didn’t look too excited chatting there with Maradona (who appears to be the type who loves hearing the sound of his own voice) and maintained polite looks on their faces but perked up later when something to their right caught their attention.  The guy in the back looks bored too.

By the way, I love Pipita’s boots!  ¡Muy llamativas!

Speaking of shoes, you have to love the attention to detail from these three guys (I’m assuming this is deliberate) as they headed to the Mirasierra Suites yesterday.  Even though their clothes are made by Adidas, all three of them still found Nike sneakers to match their outfits perfectly.  Sergio wore black and white, and his sneakers reflected that color scheme.  Meanwhile, the lime green accents on Özil’s sneakers perfectly matched the piping on his jacket, while the chartreuse parts of Khedira’s sneakers, pants legs and backpack straps were “a juego.”

In other club news, Aitor Karanka is scheduled to speak with the press after the Athletic game, after his pre-game press conference yesterday was canceled, to put the focus back on the game and to avoid questions being asked only about the Mourinho-Preciado spat.  Mou will make his return on Monday, since his suspension will be over by then, during the official UEFA press conference before the Champions League game against Ajax on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Kaká is in São Paulo undergoing tests on his left knee, and his doctor believes he can return to playing football between January and February.

In other news, Royston Ricky Drenthe was sent to a hospital in Alicante after an ulcer brought on by stress was found in his esophagus, meaning he’ll be out for Hércules’ game on Sunday against Espanyol.  The fun thing was that his wife was also in that particular hospital, having just given birth to his third kid on Thursday night.  Hope everyone in that family is okay!