I’m finally catching up with all the news!!
¡Felicidades! Raúl Albiol and longtime girlfriend Alicia Roig married yesterday in Valencia’s cathedral, and held a reception in the Palau de les Arts, the first time ever an event has been held there. The other two members of the A-team were there as well, to celebrate the very special day.
The couple’s two girls Azahara (almost two and a half) and Alma (almost one and a half) were the very adorable flower girls. Azahara looks so timid, and I’ve seen her expression before, on her father.
From Madrid, we had Álvaro Arbeloa with wife Carlota, Xabi Alonso with wife Nagore, David Mateos, Antonio Adán, Miguel Pardeza and Óscar Ribot attending. There were rumors that Sergio Ramos and Karim Benzema were also going to be there, but none of the public waiting outside the church saw them. Also in attendance were various officials, employees and former teammates from Valencia and Getafe (some of those from the club Valencia who were invited weren’t able to attend, as one of their teammates, Ángel Dealbert, married on the same day in Castellón). As usual, both Álvaro & Carlota and Xabi & Nagore looked fantastic. I love Nagore’s dress, and the fact that the three wives of the A-team were dressed in Madrid’s colors of purple and white.
The fourth member of the A-team, Antonio Adán (by virtue of his name), arrived with his date. I like her dress too! She appears to have gone to the same hairdresser as Carlota… And David Mateos was wearing what looks to be a wedding ring! I remember him talking about his girlfriend (novia) back in May, so I wonder if he got married! Anyway, it’s great to see him back!
San Bernardino (a good friend of both Álvaro Arbeloa and Raúl Albiol, he went to watch the Monaco Grand Prix with them, he helped Arbeloa prank his grandmother, he spent some time with Albiol in Bolonia earlier this month…) tweeted this photo of the testigos (witnesses). I can identify four of them, and the fifth looks really familiar, although I can’t place him right now. From left to right are Madrid’s head press officer Óscar Ribot (the one who does the Real… interviews), mystery man, Álvaro, San Bernardino and Brian Albiol, Raúl’s younger brother. San Bernardino’s co-worker at ¡Anda Ya!, Raúl Pérez, also attended. It looks like Álvaro was the equivalent of the best man! Zipi and Zape!!
Raúl’s brother Miguel, who plays for Murcia, attended despite having recently having a knee operation, which will keep him out for six months. He tweeted a couple of days ago, “now begins the odyssey of finding a suit that will fit over the cast…” and later on, “because you can’t attend a wedding in shorts, no matter how much you might want to!” And yesterday, he tweeted this photo of him and Raúl, saying, “at home with my brother, I think he came over to get rid of his nervousness and to prevent me from sleeping.”
I think Alicia was going for a Helen of Troy look, between the Grecian-style gown (by Spanish firm Pronovias) and the golden apple that served as part of the bouquet.
A couple more shots of everyone at the beautiful La Ciutat de les Arts i les Ciències. Carlota’s gown is very similar in style to the wedding dress, no?
And a video. My favorite moment was the priest sneakily taking pictures at the altar when Raúl and Alicia weren’t looking.
More nuptials: I can’t resist writing about this. Rafa and Silvie just renewed their vow in Las Vegas, and Rafa tweeted some photos! I really, really, really love this couple. I love how much in love they are. Plus, they are adorable together, and how cute is it that they dressed up for a Vegas wedding?
All set: Nuri Sahin gave an interview to Deutsche Welle, parts of which were reproduced by AS. My favorite excerpts below; I predict his Spanish skills will soon be far beyond those of Mesut and Sami.
on his new home of Madrid: I already know the city, I think it’s really beautiful and I’m very happy to be able to live there. I’ll arrive at the beginning of July, we’ve already found a house and so everything will be ready for my move. I’ll be surrounded by people that I know [Mesut and Altintop], so that will make things easier. I’ve spoken about Madrid with Mesut and his information will help me to prepare.
on speaking Spanish: I hope to learn quickly. I’ve been learning for the last year and a half, but it wasn’t because I was thinking of signing for a Spanish club, but because I was interested in it, along with some teammates in Dortmund. Our professor, the one who helped us learn to speak and understand things in Spanish, was Lucas Barrios’ translator. My objective is to speak only in Spanish the next time we talk.
According to Marca, Madrid wants Nuri to start working in Valdebebas on July 2 (nine days before his future teammates are due back) so that his knee can be checked out, and so that he can begin working on his fitness, as he hasn’t played since April.
Meanwhile… the rest of the team has been given specific and individual instructions (designed by – who else – Mou and Rui Faria) on how to keep up their fitness during their vacation time. They were allowed to relax and rest during the first 12 days. On June 3, the plan kicked in for those who weren’t playing with their national teams and the new signings: Adán, Marcelo, Carvalho, Kaká, Lass, Granero, Canales, Peter Lion, Sahin, Altintop and Callejón. Tomorrow, June 19, is when the internationals will begin their summer routine: Iker, Arbeloa, Albiol, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Cristiano, Benzema, Xabi, Mesut, Khedira. The four Argentines playing in the Copa América are excused.
The workouts include light jogging and 300 sit-ups a day. I bet Cris and Robocop will do more. The players have also been warned to watch what they eat. I wonder if Raúl will be excused from this on his honeymoon? And I’m sure that smoking is prohibited as well – I’m looking at you, Mesut Özil.
Speaking of the Copa América: it appears that Iker will have some unexpected competition for the goal next season. Meanwhile, Gonzalo Higuaín does what we love best from him – show a little tongue.
Laugh of the day: I’ve been writing about La Rojita for the other blog, and I came across this interview between EFE and Thiago Alcántara, who plays for Barcelona. He told the press agency that “I would be lying if I said my dream was to triumph in Barça. My dream is to triumph in football.” Luckily for Thiago, those two things are basically the same, according to his own teammate, Xavi. It looks like Thiago hasn’t been inculcated by Xavi yet, which is a good thing. Las malas lenguas are saying that Madrid could make a move for Thiago just to piss Barcelona off, because the arrival of Cesc could push him out of the team’s plans.
Update: since some Barça fans did not like those statements, Thiago had to apologize: “I ask for el barcelonismo for forgiveness because I know that they didn’t like those declarations, but they were misinterpreted.” Seems like a lot of that has been going on with Thiago recently!
This is so cute: our canteranos even vacation together! Jorge Casado and Tomás Mejías are currently on vacation in Ibiza together! And they were hanging out with Jesús Fernández!