I think that you all need this post today more than the ICYMI for the Madrid-Barcelona CL ida, so here is the ICYMI for the celebrations at Cibeles for the Copa del Rey! Iker was the star, but Marcelo was the life of the party.
After the team finished celebrating at the Mestalla, they boarded the team bus to take them to the airport. Mou was looking at his watch, wondering where some of his players were, and he glared at two of Madrid’s employees when they told him they didn’t know where Cristiano and Iker were. So, the bus was about to leave, and then Cristiano came running up. Seconds later, it was Sergio. By then, the bus door was already shut.
The bus had started pulling away when… Iker came jogging up! I can’t believe they almost left Iker behind! Their captain! As he got on the bus, he patted Aitor Karanka affectionately on the cheek.
As the bus pulled up to Manises, the players could be seen tapping on the windows along with the beats of the chants from the crowd. They were also seen singing.
The 45-minute long flight back to Madrid was a continuation of the celebration that began at the Mestalla. Apparently, Mou started a pillow fight during the flight. He threw five pillows at one of the press officers, hiding after each time. And when he ran out of pillows, he started throwing blankets. The players noticed what was going on and joined in. Meanwhile, they also posed with the trophy…
… and Kaká got everyone to sign his shirt, while Mesut went around collecting money for… his very own tanning bed (no need to go to Cris’ house anymore)? A stylist for Iker? Cup repairs because a psychic octopus had told him that someone was going to break the Cup?
I loved how the seats had pictures of the team on them!
The team arrived back in Madrid around 03:35 in the morning, and they headed for the Bernabéu. While waiting for the bus to depart for Cibeles, Sergio and Marcelo started the party, and Iker grabbed something to eat.
It was after four in the morning when the team finally arrived at the Plaza de Cibeles, taking an open-top bus all the way from the Bernabéu. Despite the late (or early) hour, the rain and the fact that it was a holiday, hundreds of thousands of madridistas thronged the plaza and the surrounding streets (Alcalá, Recoletos, Paseo del Prado) to cheer on their team. Here are the views of C/Alcalá towards Sol and the Puerta de Alcalá.
Among the chants heard were “así, así, así, así gana el Madrid,” “ese portugués, qué guapo es” (this Portuguese, how handsome he is), the ever-popular “sí, sí, sí, la Copa ya está aquí” (yes, yes, yes, the Cup is here) and the one on the huge sign Madrid has been displaying at games, “hasta el final, vamos Real.” Many of the fans had headed to the plaza as soon as the final whistle blew. The city hall also got into the act (can you believe this building used to be a post office?).
For most of the journey, the ones in front were Pepe, Cris, Marcelo (now you see him, now you don’t!), Manu, Benzema and Sergio. I really wonder what Marcelo whispered to Manu, and in what language!!!
The goddess was surrounded by a double-layered barrier. Right before the team bus reached the plaza, the “copacidio” happened. Sergio Ramos had been holding the trophy above his head while standing in the front of the bus when he fell backwards and the Cup slid out of his hands, landing on the ground right in front of the bus. The bus driver, unaware of what had just transpired, continued driving, and the front right wheel of the bus crunched right over the Cup. Ever time I see the crunch, I wince.
From a different angle. I love that the bus license plate is R-Madrid! By the way, 0n the back of the bus, there are little drawings of each trophy with the number of each of them that the club has won. An astute person crossed out the “17” that was next to the Copa del Rey and wrote in “18.”
The poor Cup! Marcelo kept on celebrating (he said later “I didn’t understand anything, I had no idea what had happened, just that the Cup was no longer there!”) but when he realized what had happened, he put his hands to his head.
Once the driver was made aware of the fall of the Cup, he stopped the bus, and emergency personnel went to go pick up the pieces. The driver took the pieces of the Cup (apparently there were around 10 pieces) back into the bus, and it did not appear again.
Sergio Ramos later assured everyone that the Cup was “good,” and also reiterated that via twitter, saying, “it was a misunderstanding – the Cup jumped up when it reached Cibeles because it saw so many madridistas…” and “Welly” made fun of him.
However, the maker of the Cup said it was completely destroyed. Federico Alegre, owner of Alegre Jewelers, had just returned from Valencia, and he heard what had happened on the radio. He thought it was a joke, and when he realized it was true, he went directly to the Bernabéu instead of going home to see what could be done. Once there, he went to Agustín Herrerín’s office to see what state the Cup was in, and to try and repair it. Luckily, he had a backup Cup just in case something like this happened, and it’s this Cup that’s now displayed in Madrid’s museum (this is the first time the backup has ever had to be used).
When the players arrived at the plaza, they got to walk around a sort of runway around the plaza. Mesut said a few words in Spanish (“Yo soy muy feliz”) while Carvalho said the following about Peter Lion – “Éste es un crack,” which prompted Peter Lion to retort, “he doesn’t know a lot of Spanish.” José Mourinho took a quick lap, then went back to the bus, from where he watched the rest of the celebration.
But mostly, there was a lot of dancing, singing and jumping around. Even Iker got into it! And Benzema showed more life than I’ve ever seen!
This pairing of Karim and Manu and what they’re doing here may just be enough for me to declare them the winner over Cris-Marcelo in the 2010-11 Real Madrid dance-off.
Pipita would have to get an honorable mention too. He wore a white hat for the entire night while the other players were decked out in scarves and flags tied around their heads, wrists, necks, shoulders, waists…
The obligatory Sergio shot…
Marcelo just keeps going and going, doesn’t he? And even the guys you would think are the most reserved – Adán and El Pirata come to mind – were getting crazy!
Even Zidane joined the party!
Ozi is definitely doing his part to get featured more on this blog, no? Even if it’s just tamely tapping his bufanda on someone else… I love him and Iker together!
And also this tender moment with Sami!
More crazy dancing, this time from Kaká!
I love Iker in the hat, and his expression. It’s good that Iker looks good in hats, because if the hair doesn’t stay on his head…
I LOVE MARCELO.
A couple of cute shots of our front line. Cris was very composed during the entire celebration.
The two fathers of the team celebrating with their kids…
… Mou’s lovely dimple…
… and some shots from Álvaro’s Facebook. We’ll ignore the thumbs just for tonight.
Iker, as captain, was the one designated to put a flag and a scarf of the team on the goddess Cibeles. He did this quite tenderly and carefully, and then gave her a kiss while “We are the champions” played in the background. Gone are the days when the team could climb all over her (I’ll always remember Roberto Carlos sitting on one of the lions pulling her chariot).
Iker said right before attending to Cibeles, “I’m new at this, I have no idea how to do it.” But he was great, no? Sergio filmed the moment on his iPhone.
Iker’s celebrations always have to end with a kiss, don’t they?
And this is how pretty Cibeles looked after Iker was done with her.
Meanwhile, Esteban got poetic. He tweeted, “I have – exclusively – the words that the goddess Cibeles spoke to Iker, while he kissed her after putting the scarf on her.” The next tweet had those words: “Never let me lose the marvel of your statue-like eyes, or the accent the solitary rose of your breath places on my cheek at night.” He then tweeted, “I believe that she didn’t know what to say and so at the last moment, she asked for advice from a friend from Granada.” That friend is of course Spanish poet Federico García Lorca, and those words – so, so appropriate, no? – from “Sonnet of the Sweet Complaint.” I love that Esteban could quote this!!!!!
At this point, the celebration ended, and all of the team returned to the bus for the ride back to the Bernabéu…
… except for one José Mourinho, who was escorted by police to one of their armored cars, making it look like he was being arrested. But you could see that he had a suitcase in hand. He left Cibeles in a police car because he didn’t want to miss his flight to Lisbon, as he was returning to Setubal. So, he asked the police to help him get a taxi to take him home. He spent three hours with his family in his hometown, and was back at the airport by midday.
What a great celebration!!!