the latest news to know

One. A fun video from Cuatro of the players’ activities on Thursday.  See how the valet at El Espigón mixed up their cars; how short Lass really is; and a woman rearranging her hair right before Cristiano makes an appearance.  Also of note: the guys staring at the cheerleaders; Sami Khedira; and blink and you’ll miss him Sergio Canales.

But the best part is of course the three amigos.  Don’t you love how it only takes one look at Marcelo for Cristiano to crack up?  I wonder how much of the actual game they saw.

I also have a lot of love for the purple watch that Marcelo wore to the basketball game!  It matches with his hat!  Another great choice, Marcelino!

Two. The San Sebastián Tourism Council has decided to bestow upon Xabi Alonso their 2011 Tambor de Oro (golden drum) award for “actively and conspicuously contributing to the formation of an attractive image of the city.”

Attractive indeed.  The mere presence of Xabi in the city makes it infinitely more attractive, no?  (Not that it needs a lot of help, because the city is already preciosa, and one of my favorites in Spain.)  And Xabi talking about the city is very appealing as well.

Let’s hope the city is smart enough to use Xabi as the image of the city in all their advertisements – I’m sure tourism there will definitely increase!

The proposal still has to be ratified by the city, but since there’s hardly any doubt that Xabi deserves this, it will be presented to him on Jan. 20 during the fiesta celebrating the patron saint of the city – unsurprisingly, it’s Saint Sebastian – called the Tamborrada (which is why the awards are called tambores).  The mayor of the city said they have already asked the president of Real Sociedad to contact FP to see if Xabi can be present (there are Copa del Rey games that week).  He added that he’s already spoken with Xabi and that he was touched by the recognition.  Xabi’s candidacy was proposed by his former football society Antiguoko, and a web site.

Xabi of course maintains his link to his beloved Donostia, as he’s still a La Real supporter, he met his wife there, got married there and maintains a house there.

Three. Pepe told La Sexta that he would like to continue on in Madrid, which is good news since he’s currently negotiating his renovation.  Pepe said, “I would like to be in Real Madrid for many more years, my intention is to continue here and the renovation is in the hands of my agent and the president.”  Good.

Four. Cristiano has revealed that he watches Prison Break as he finds it “relaxing.”  This was via another of his (and by his, I mean his publicist) amazing, informative and not strange at all tweets.

Five. And Karim Benzema has lost about four kilos in the last months, which should make him a better player.  When the players returned to Madrid from their summer vacations, Mou discovered that Marcelo and Benzema were both about five kilos above their ideal weights.  Marcelo was able to quickly return to fighting form, while for Benzema it took a while longer.  Apparently, Karim was able to take the weight off simply by working hard.

Psychologically, the presence of Zidane is also a help.  During the team’s visit to Amsterdam earlier this week, Zizou took the time to sit down and have long chats with Benzema, since before he was either alone or stuck to Lass.

Six. Pipita spoke with AS.  But first, go have a listen to his cumbia here.  It’s very catchy and I can’t get it out of my head… Pipita Higuaín es de mi Argentina… The song was created by the group Soleado de Sauce de Luna before the World Cup, as the article says.

Back to the interview.  Highlights include Gonzalo saying that he always “sleeps well”; reminding the interviewer that there are only three points at play during this game (i.e. it’s not as important as the media makes it out to be); revealing that the players can understand each other on the field just by looking at each other; that he has the custom since he was a kid of always entering the field on his left foot; and that he speaks with Messi quite often via text messages, although they haven’t talked about the game yet.

And on the negative side, he still has back and waist pains and was in a bad mood during the interview.  But he did manage a smile for the photo.

It looks like the pro-Madrid press is running out of ideas for poses in the run-up to the game, no?  That’s the cover of today’s Marca on the right.  I’ll write about the interview with Iker in a separate post.

Seven. In Barcelona, the players will be staying at the Juan Carlos I hotel (which overlooks the Camp Nou).  At the airport, their bus will go directly onto the runway to receive them, so that they won’t have to walk through the airport terminal.  Let’s keep them safe. The club has decided that the team will pass through terminal 2 of the airport so that their fans will be able to see them.