Interesting fact of the day: according to La Información, the number of children named “Iker” in Spain has grown fourfold in the last decade, probably due to the popularity of a certain goalkeeper.
In Madrid, the number of Ikers running around grew from 117 in the ’90s to 1,768 in this past decade, or 15 times as much. Curiously enough, Barcelona registered an even stronger growth in the popularity of the name, as the number of Ikers grew from 122 to 2,904 in the same period, or 23.8 times as much.
And as you can see, since “Iker” is a Basque name, its popularity has not changed as dramatically in the three provinces comprising (my next home) País Vasco.
In other Iker news, Competition has decided to sanction Iker with a one-game suspension for receiving a red card in the game against Espanyol, although Madrid had provided video evidence to show that it wasn’t deserved. Iker was also fined €600 and the club €90.
Madrid has the option of lodging an appeal today to get the sanction overturned. If they decide not to appeal or are not successful, Iker will miss this weekend’s game against Levante.
Madrid has had eight players sent off this season, including Iker against Espanyol. The other cases were Ricardo Carvalho against Sevilla, Pepe against Espanyol (primera vuelta), Sergio Ramos against Barcelona and Arbeloa against Getafe in the Liga, and of course the infamous red cards of Xabi and Sergio in the Champions League game against Ajax. Álvaro Arbeloa was also sent off in the Copa against Murcia.