A weekend’s worth of Real Madrid news…
This is Madrid: Iker has been providing us with some real gems via his Facebook account (and Google translate), such as the title of this post (which makes sense in a weird way), and yesterday’s message, “outputs F1 fantastic!” But what I want to highlight here is the congratulatory message he posted yesterday for Barcelona, congratulating them, and especially his national team teammates, on winning the Champions League trophy (he also congratulated them for winning the Liga at a public event). Sergio also tweeted his congratulations, saying basically the same thing.
Meanwhile, FP sent a congratulatory SMS to Sandro Rosell, while Emilio Butragueño, as director of institutional relations, called his counterpart to offer his congratulations. I am so happy to see this class and señorío from our people, especially when very few Barcelona players had this courtesy with Iker or any of his teammates after Madrid won the Copa del Rey.
Things that make you go vroom: Raúl Albiol and Álvaro Arbeloa were busy celebrating the former’s despedida (bachelor party) at the Monaco Grand Prix yesterday. They visited with Spanish team Hispania Racing, as well as Fernando Alonso (Arbeloa invited him to come watch a game). I love Álvaro in those sunglasses, but I can’t say the same for those sandals and cut-off jean shorts. And I can’t believe how short he looks next to Raúl, even though he’s 1.83m tall (Albiol is 1.90m tall). Photos via Hispania Racing’s Facebook page.
Wedding bells: speaking of El Chori and Alicia’s wedding, it will take place on June 17 in Valencia’s cathedral, with the reception to be held in the Palau de Les Arts, the opera house that is part of the Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències (City of Arts and Sciences) complex. This will be the first time ever that the building will play host to a banquet, as the government recently opened it up as a way to earn some more income. Several of Albiol’s Madrid teammates will be at the ceremony and reception (Arbeloa is a certainty) but it appears that his former Valencia teammates won’t be, as they’ve all been invited to Ángel Dealbert’s wedding on the same day in Castellón. Alicia Roig was last seen attending the Pronovias fashion show at the Pasarela Gaudí Novias earlier this month, so I’m guessing her dress will be the work of that firm.
Yes, yes and yes (or would that be oui): AS has Zinedine Zidane as the first-ever director of the first team, a position especially created for him, because both José Mourinho and the directors want him to assume a bigger role in the club and take on more responsibilities. Zizou will of course report to Mou, and work next to him. And speaking of Zidane, did you know that he’s a very, very, very minority shareholder (in the area of a €10,000 investment) in the French club Évian Thonon Gaillard, which was promoted to the Ligue 1 two weeks ago? The owner of the team, Franck Riboud (who is also the president of Danone) is a friend of Zidane, and that’s where the connection comes from. And in other Zizou news, he will be the subject of a book presentation at the Bernabéu on June 3 at 13h. The title of the book is “La elegancia del héroe sencillo” (The elegance of a simple hero).
More from Karim: and on the subject of French footballers, Karim Benzema was at Roland Garros yesterday, and he told Stade 2 that he wants to stay with Madrid, that he has no problems with Mou (when will people begin to believe that?) and that he sent a text message to Eric Abidal congratulating him for winning the Champions League. Our team has class all around.
And remember this interview? Well Marca also spent an afternoon with Karim in his hometown, specifically the Bron neighborhood of Lyon. Karim waited for them at his parents’ house. He now has another house in the city, but he still comes back home to stay with his parents once in a while, since his father Hafid doesn’t want to leave the neighborhood. Karim, between signing autographs and posing for pictures, takes the reporter to the field where he learned to play football, followed by his father’s German Shepherd Léonidas. He spent six years playing on that field of Bron Terraillon, before he left for Olympique. Karim often comes back to this field, to watch the kids play and to give them advice.
Hafid takes care of Léonidas while Karim is on the field, and says he always knew his son had something special, even when he was cut from Bron Terraillon the first time he tried out and he had to bring him back a second time. The first time around, there were so many boys trying out that it was hard to get the attention of anyone, so Hafid brought Karim home, waited a bit and then went back a second time. And this time, Karim caught the eye of the coaches.
Papá Cristiano: I love this video of a young goalkeeper, Duarte Lima, who won a contest and got the chance to spend a few days living with the Portuguese national team. It’s worth a watch just to see Cristiano display his parenting skills – he tells him where to go to get hot food, serves him, fusses over him. Don’t miss Cris’ laugh into the camera! We also see how affectionate Pepe is with the kid.
Road trip: things were looking good for Castilla as they traveled to Alcoy on Saturday to prepare for Sunday’s second-leg playoff game, with the chance to play for a spot in the second division at stake. On the bus ride over, Jorge Casado tweeted these photos of him and his seatmate Juan Carlos, as well as MFC on his computer.
MSFC was in a playful mood, no? And later that night, while some of the players (MFC, Pablo Sarabia, Álex, Dani Carvajal) gathered to watch the Champions League final…
… others decided to dar un paseo and this is how it ended up. Denis said, “we’re in Alcoy! I’m taking a walk near the hotel with Fran Rico, Óscar Plano and Víctor Merchán.” Then Fran Rico tweeted, “Denis is eating an ice cream” and thoughtfully provided a picture. Denis tweeted back (the picture below probably shows this exact moment), “Fran Rico ate the biggest ice cream in Alcoy! And now he’s buying some candy for himself!” This caused Fran to retort, “that’s a lie, he’s so spiteful, I had a (small) ice cream and the thing about the candy is a lie.” You have to love these boys!
But…: those were the last good moments, because Castilla ended up tying Alcoyano 2-2 last night, and is eliminated from the playoffs. Fran Rico and MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín scored for Castilla, and the pobrecito Juan Carlos left the field crying.
But I know they did their best, and that’s all we can expect from them, no? Next year’s Castilla will be very exciting to watch. And Iker wrote, “we have to cheer up the boys from Castilla! They had an excellent season, and there is a great team in place so that they can ascend next year! I’m sure they’ll do it!”
That baby face and full head of hair: as I’ve stated before, Madrid will be playing two games in China (Guangzhou and Tianjin) in August, and so Emilio Butragueño was over there last week to sign the agreements and attend press conferences. The video on the Madrid site from this event included footage from Madrid’s previous visits to China, including some scenes of a very young Iker (the vintage footage was mostly of Iker since no other player from those tours are still with Madrid, unless you count Zidane).
Muy original: and it’s great to see that one year away from Spain has not changed Guti’s sartorial tastes! This is how he appeared for son Aitor’s first communion this past weekend. Guti will be spending the summer in – where else – Ibiza.
