will he change his name to vuit cinc?
He’s still in Spain, eating at the Hard Rock Café of all places (when there are thousands of better restaurants in Madrid!!!), and also on his way to Barcelona for a showdown with Gerard Piqué. Who else but Chad Ochocinco? He also found time to chat with AS, and this is the resulting interview.
Now I don’t follow American football, but to me it seems like he’s on self-promotional tour of Europe. Why else would there be all this talk about “playing” for Madrid, and why else would he only tweet pictures of himself with Madrid players who are on twitter? (Mou is an obvious exception, plus Pepe, because of the same name novelty.)
Q: Just four days after ending your season with the Bengals, you hopped on an airplane and came to Madrid to see your friend Cristiano.
A: Yes, I wanted to see what Real Madrid was like. It was impressive to see it up close. It was a dream come true.
Q: What did you think of the squad?
A: I enjoyed being with them. They welcomed me and I felt like one more player on the team. I took photos with Mourinho and a lot of players. When I went to have dinner with Cristiano, I also met some players from Atlético. As a football fan, I also want to go watch other teams. I would like to go to Barcelona and I also have plans to see Arsenal and Chelsea play. I know Henry and Drogba.
Q: I heard you were very impressed with the Champions League cups…
A: Yes, Madrid has a lot of trophies. I know the importance of winning the Champions. I wish the Bengals had such full display cases (smiles). In any case, I still have some years ahead of me, so I hope to achieve some trophies.
Q: What can you tell us about your friend Cristiano?
A: He’s a great guy. And a complete player. I like him because we have the same attitude when we play. We always want to be the best one out there.
Q: Who would win a race of speed between the two of you?
A: I would, of course. Cristiano is like a thunderclap, but I’m like a flash of lightning! (Laughs).
Q: You’re addicted to twitter. The other day, you exchanged messages with Piqué…
A: Yes, I told him that he should be worried when I sign for Madrid. I can beat him, he’s very slow and too small to deal with me…
Q: You’ve joked about trying out for Madrid.
A: I would like to play with Madrid. When I retire from the NFL! (Laughs).
Q: Really?
A: As a kid, I played soccer. It was my first love. I always wanted to play, but it’s not developed professionally in my country. That’s why I chose American football. I wanted a long career. But I play soccer when I can.
Q: Well, Mourinho said he wanted another forward…
A: I know, I told him that I’m on vacation until June. I was a forward! I was a good one, I scored a lot of goals.
Q: You’re a celebrity in your home country but here American football is not very popular…
A: I know. The only people who recognized me here in Madrid were two Mexican families (laughs).
following Real Madrid... 
ochocinco is pretty self promotional in anything/everything that he does (he has a reality show, is super active on twitter, has a videogame called mad chad) but he has tweeted a lot about football even before this. i think sometime last year he said that if he ever left the NFL it would be for the EPL or la liga. also, during this past el clasico, he watched, live tweeted, supported real madrid, and once madrid started losing, he tweeted a lot of pictures of himself with mou, cristiano, and other players from other teams that he’d met before.
but that being said, he also tweets pretty much any and everything in his life, with accompanying pictures. it makes sense that he’d only tweet the players who are on twitter because i doubt that, other than possibly iker, he’s that familiar with anyone else and he’s also just really into twitter.
i don’t know how he’s expect to be famous in europe because his team in the US isn’t that good at all. this is just chad being… chad. but HA at AS covering it! and i hope he does beat pique.
I wonder if Pique is like… Who is this guy? (As in I don’t have any idea who is, not who does he think he is). 🙂
No … I think he knows cause they were talking back and fourth … and thanx to the internet you can look up anyone…
Pique was going back and forth joking with him on Twitter yesterday. They seemed to be having a lot of fun.
Yeah I spoke too soon. Saw on Twitter and that he attended Barca’s session and took pix with Pique, Puyol, Iniesta, Bojan, Villa and I think Messi.
After my first LOLling when I read more about that guy (although I am still not super familiar with him), I still find some things funny (the “child, please” line eg.), but I agree that the self promotion is sooooo obvious to the extent that it is predictable…… he really does tweet everything that comes to his mind….
I do not see what his plan is, though. Regarding Barcelona, I mean. Will he or will he not appear at Camp Nou in Real Madrid’s jersey? Or will he go there and try to score 5 goals agains Puyol and Pique? You know, self-proclaimed revenge for ElClasico? LOL
But seriously, the only thing that can beat this is if he went to Englad next and visited both Manchester and Liverpool…. LOL
He told Rio he’s coming to visit him. Haven’t seen any posts about Liverpool yet tho.
@ochocinco
Chad Ochocinco
@rioferdy5 Rio whats up? i am down the street, coming to see you guys in a few days
@rioferdy5
Rio Ferdinand
@ochocinco what date u in uk and u visiting Old Trafford bro? Tell @Cristiano to call before I release early bad hair pics of him on here! (bwahhahaha would love to see that!)
oh! yeah, it would seem probable that he would go to Liverpool next or another old rival of Manchester. Look at his track so far:)
– go to Madrid, fangirl at Valdebebas, eat with CR7, fangirl at Santiago Bernabeu,
– try to wake up Carles Puyol (“hello Carles, are you sleeping?” LOL)
-tease other Barca players, tell PK you will win with him (I am RM supporter, but come on, yeah, win with PK…)
-mention Atletico Madrid
-go to Barcelona, announce yourself to watch the practice, ask Puyol when he wakes up,
(I wonder if he’ll go to visit Espanyol stadium too)
I see through it: 85’s European Tour around Historical Football Rivarlies! LOL (not that it would not be fun to do, but still….;-)
LOL even in Warsaw Hard Rock Cafe is not the best restaurant: only local celebrities go there to show off O.o yes definetely this whole visit in Spain is probably only meant to boost interest around himself. pfff…
Well, it’s twitter, so I’m not sure what he would tweet about if not himself. Also, he has over 20,000 tweets and about half of them include pictures. He’s tweeted pictures of his car stuck in the snow, of himself and a friend the night they got kicked out of Target, of the medical bed at the Bengals training facility, the food on his plate, etc. He tweets about Real Madrid on a regular basis. This isn’t new territory for him. I imagine the reason he posted pictures of the players with accounts is because he could link people to their twitters. I doubt he cares any less or didn’t take pictures of the players without them. As for playing for the Real Madrid, it’s called a joke. It’s sarcasm. He’s an avid football fan and Real Madrid is his team.
And since he’s been in Spain he’s taken and posted pictures of himself with the two Mexican families he mentioned, himself on the street, several pairs of Louboutins (one of which he gave away at random and for free on twitter), etc. He doesn’t have some ulterior motive for self-promotion. It’s just the way he is.
for the record: no, no, I do not doubt his devotion for RM, I am just curious what will happen next;-)
My thoughts exactly!
Chad’s not perfect by any means (DWTS anyone?) but I think some comments on here are pure jealousy. He’s a RM fan who took pictures with every single RM player who wanted to and posted them on Twitter, what’s wrong with it lol?
For the record, even though I’m American, I don’t watch the NFL either. I only follow him because he’s a RM fanboy and I think he’s pretty funny.
He is entertaining. He’ll seem random to those who don’t know him, but this isn’t the first time he’s picked a battle with a pro-athlete in another sport- anyone else remember him saying he could take on Michael Phelps after Beijing ’08? Crazy! But he’s into his sports and a fun tweeter.
if I could do a Grand Tour of European footy clubs, i’d be soooo there 😉
hahahaha, he is hilarious! I like him. : )
He is insufferable – IMHO of course. The only thing worse would be if Terrell Owens [his teammate who loves himself equally] were with him. I guess the upside is that we are getting some pics of the team – if only he could get one of them to pose in a sugggie! 🙂
rofl! THAT would be hilarious! I bet Marcelo’d do it 😀
Who is his joker? He’s just a celebrity trying to big himself up in Europe, he doesnt give a damn about futbol or Real Madrid or Pique or any of it. Yankee go home!
Hey! Enough of the Yankee comments. 😐
concur!!!
I concur with Lola – he’s a shameless self promoter. Sure he likes Madrid, but if he goes into Camp Nou and dons the Blaugrana, he’s gonna make a few enemies real quick.
He’s a long time footy and RM fan. He’s been tweeting about it for ages. It’s not like he just discovered the sport or the team. He’s a legit fan. It’s pretty amazing how many people are judging him without knowing anything about him. Saying he’s stalking Cristiano and stuff like that. I mean, the guy is a total goofball who basically lives his every moment online, that much is true. But he’s a big footy fan and is good friends with many of the players like CR7 and Rio. Heck, he’s pals with Mou, so seriously, cut him some slack. They all appear to be having fun and being silly. I just don’t understand the hate and aggression towards him. I, for one, am enjoying seeing the pictures. If I had the chance to go and tour all the footy stadiums and meet the teams, I sure as hell would. I’d probably tweet about it too. Endlessly. 😉 And for the record, I don’t follow American football in the slightest, so it’s not like I’m a huge fan of Ochocinco or something.
And yeah, watch the “Yankee, go home” comments, please. Yankee Madridista girl here.
P.S. Pique gave him a Barca jersey with his name and 85 on it today (see pix at http://community.livejournal.com/ontd_football/3144863.html#cutid1) so it seems that Pique, Puyol, etc. have no problem with him. Not sure why anyone else would either.
As he said in a tweet when someone accused him of being a traitor for going to Barca (Seriously, person? Grow up.) “A traitor? I am a futbol lover, of all players and teams, relax man, I am visiting my friends, geesh!! I love u man :)”
I don’t understand this “Yankee go home” business. That was not necessary. Chad is just being himself. He is random and twitter crazy. That is how he is. Why would he need to promote himself. As far I know the NFL is not coming to Europe.
Gerry Pique’s too small? Hahaha he’s in for a shock when he meets him….great article, this guy just needs to disappear back to Cincinnati or wherever he comes from!
haha! compared to some of the guys that hit ochocinco every day, pique IS tiny.
I would PAY to see those overinflated NFL players take off their body armour and go head to head with, say, the All Blacks rugby team. The words minced and meat spring to mind.
doubt it.
Oh yeah, that’s Ochocinco for you! I’m not a big NFL fan but I’m American so I’m familiar with him as a person… that’s just his personality… he tweets about absolutely everything. I think he just likes to talk. And I think the picture thing is probably just because he’s communicated with the players who are on Twitter. I think he is a genuine RM fan though, and has been for a while. It’ll be quite interesting to see what happens at Barca today hahahaa. Thank you for posting (and translating?) the interview!!!
*lol* he cracks me up…. he is too funny… sometimes I don’t even know when he is serious or joking around… Like the other day on twitter he gave out Louis Vuitton and $1200 …. <<< Now that right their tells you NFL gets paid to much… but hey at least his giving it to "poor people" …. And I really want to see Geri & Puyi vs Chad OchoCinco… and I agree "ochocinco is pretty self promotional in anything/everything that he does" … I think his more fame for what he does off the field then on the field…
you guys are kind of fiercely hating on the guy. i mean, he is a show-off, but he’s a legit madridista. i don’t like the bengals (saints girl here), but i’m getting this elitist vibe from some of y’all. not cool.
Thank you. That’s exactly what I was trying to say.
colts fan here (actually more of manning fan than anything else) and i do not really like ochocinco myself. he represents the bad side of athletes–more flash, more talk with less work and teamwork.
I don’t like Chad Ochocinco. I’ve been following the NFL for years, considering I grew up with it. But of all the players, he is one of my least favorites. He is INCREDIBLY self-centered. What I do like about him is that he seems to have a genuine regard for soccer. Same with Steve Nash from the NBA. I can’t argue with a guy who respects the game. Too many Americans just say “I don’t get soccer, so I don’t like it.” Well, as an American, I don’t get football… But I still like it.
Gotta say though… I don’t think he’d beat Cristiano in a foot race. But I’d like to see it.
He is definitely on a self promotion tour… But I am beginning to wonder if he is ever NOT on a self promotion tour? Haha. He is rather entertaining at least. I just hope CR7 does not pick up any (more) bad habits. Boy already has mystery baby, swimsuit model, and Sara carbonara keeping him in the papers, he doesn’t need a reality tv show too!!!
self-promoting is the right word. he was a wash this season. he really needs to take up another sport because american football is not working out for him recently.
he was chad johnson before becoming chad ochocinco.
his sexist homophobic comments on Twitter lately have shown him to be exactly what he is… a sexist homophobe. He is, what Charlotte on Sex & The City called, a c. u. next. tuesday