José Mourinho must be having a good laugh and celebrating, because he doesn’t have to deal with the press anymore. Aitor Karanka will speak to the press tonight at 19:30h from the Bernabéu, and after that, at 20h, the team will hold a training session at the stadium, their last one before tomorrow’s late game against Getafe (22h). That’s certainly new, both the training site and hour, which might mean that Mou is going to make some changes. Sergio Ramos is definitely out for the game, as he’s serving a one-game suspension, and so he asked for permission to stay in Sevilla after Saturday’s game, which was granted (how convenient for Sergio, no? He got to spend almost all of the past week in his beloved Sevilla, enjoying the Feria de Abril, between missing the Champions League semifinal second leg and this next game). And Xabi Alonso is recovering from some pain to his right adductor. If he doesn’t recover in time for tomorrow’s game, then Xabi-in-training (Esteban Granero) will come in for him.
Madrid also officially announced today the worst kept secret of recent weeks, the signing of Nuri Sahin from Borussia Dortmund.
Uh-oh, Ángel has competition. And Sami too, but in a different way.
The contract is for six years at a reported €2.5 million per year, and the transfer fee, according to AS, is between €10-12 million (Marca says it’s 10). Sahin is a 22-year-old midfielder who was born in Germany, but plays for Turkey, as he has Turkish origins. He gave a press conference today announcing the move, where he said, “going to Real Madrid is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that you can’t let go by. I didn’t choose Real Madrid for money, but because it’s the biggest club in the world. It’s impossible to say no to them for their history and for the project that they’re building.” Sahin also revealed that he talked Mou, who convinced him immediately: “we met one day in Dortmund and it didn’t take long before I was convinced. He’s one of the best managers in the world and I really want to work with him.”
How soon before we can see the pictures of Nuri staring at himself in the mirror, doing the double thumbs-up pose, pointing at the camera, etc.?
According to Marca, Mou will give an extra week of vacation to three of the Argentine players – Higuaín, Garay and Di María – in order to allow them to get some rest before Argentina begins preparing for the Copa de América, which takes place in Argentina from July 1-24. The plan is to free them after Sunday’s game against Villarreal (jornada 37), meaning they won’t play in the last game of the season, against Almería during the weekend of May 21-22, as neither Madrid nor Almería will be playing for anything.
Cristiano and Iker, along with their respective girlfriends, took in the Madrid Open final last night between Rafa Nadal and Novak Djokovic. Iker didn’t look bad in terms of style, but then again, the direct competition was Cristiano, in his all blue outfit – blue leather jacket (yes, such a thing does exist), blue shirt, blue jeans, held together by a belt with a huge belt buckle, of course. By the way, Iker’s faithful companion – no, not Sara, but his purse – made the trip as well.
The girls competed with each other in PDA towards their novios (and perhaps in amounts of silicon in their bodies as well). Cris looked a bit overheated, no?
The guys returned the favor… (did you notice that Cris and Irina shared the sunglasses?)
And though Sara and Irina are both attractive women, actress Paz Vega, sitting behind Sara, outshines them both. (By the way, Sara needs to learn how to apply make-up properly. It’s either too much, or improperly applied – at the tournament yesterday, it just made her eyes look even further apart than they are, and highlighted their downward slant. And Irina needs more variety in her wardrobe, because she’s never not in anything either skintight or low-cut or both.) As for the boys, there’s no question who wins the crown for hottest (in terms of looks and not body temperature, otherwise Cris would win for the latter) and best dressed – Miguel Torres.
Also on hand: the two Rickys, with Kaká looking very pijo.
Sergio Ramos watchers, mark this date on your calendar. Sergio will be in attendance as the padrino for the Apascovi Foundation’s fourth annual Pro Am tournament in Madrid on May 17 at the RACE golf course. Expect Sergio to turn up in something colorful and “muy Sergio,” to make up for the absence of Guti.
And MFC tweeted this picture of him enjoying Madrid today.
