It’s finally Friday, it’s been a super long week, and all I want to do is take a siesta, but I thought I would first try and update you on what’s going on in our little Madrid world – the super concentration of hot guys in one spot, the billionaire president, the famous actor, the broken €350,000 car (which is just one month old). It’s just another day in Madrid.
After their training session on Thursday at Valdebebas (which Manuel Preciado once again attended), the team headed to the Bernabéu to have lunch, at the Puerta 57 restaurant. The meal served as a team building event at a crucial point in the season, and there were also reports that FP had wanted to invite the team for lunch, in celebration of his 65th birthday that day, though he himself did not attend (but presumably picked up the check, which he can of course afford, since he just recently made Forbes’ list of “The World’s Billionaires” tied for the 802nd position with a net worth of US$1.6 billion; FP is the ninth richest person in Spain). However, there were conflicting reports that said that this year’s new signings – Varane, Altintop, Sahin, Coentrão and Calleti – took care of the check.
Anyway, the players, the coaching staff and Zinedine Zidane, in his capacity as director of the first team, were present. Cristiano, who is suffering from the flu, missed out on the free lunch. The boys spent two hours eating (the appetizers were jamón, baby squid, “broken eggs” and grilled vegetables, with a choice between sole or steak as the main course), and the Spaniards apparently stayed half an hour longer than everyone else.
And of course, this was the perfect occasion for a little fashion critique, since the parking area of the Bernabéu became an impromptu runway. So, these are my observations from the pictures we have here. I’m sorry to say this, because he’s usually perfect, but Xabi’s shirt is too tight (or is he just channeling his former alter ego Sabrina?). Had it been a bit looser, I would have loved this look. Mesut looks very handsome, but what in the world is that on Sami’s jacket? I can see a woman wearing that, but a 1.89m, bad ass footballer? I don’t like the shirt with the fake necklaces either. And Kaká, well he was just excited to be part of the school field trip to the museum!
Meanwhile, Iker and his purse must have had a fight, because he left it at home, and chose to take his beloved iPhone out instead. For once, he doesn’t look too bad, and that is the highest praise I can give him. Sergio is in a typical Sergio outfit, especially that belt. And though Ricardo Carvalho has been failing on the field, he did pretty well in the fashion stakes, rocking a leather jacket. His jeans are several shades too light though.
And some more observations from this video: Rafa Varane showed up driving his own Audi, which means that he must have gotten his license! If Kaká looked like he’s in middle school, well Fábio Coentrão looks like he’s in elementary school (that’s a Mickey Mouse shirt). Speaking of that, Karim looks like he’s carrying a security blanket. I love Calleti in red! And Mou couldn’t be bothered to dress up, could he? The rest of his coaching staff (maybe with the exception of Silvino) clean up nicely, but Mou just decided to throw a zip-up over his training shirt. When will we see him in a suit again?
As several members of the team were leaving the stadium, they ran into the actor Zac Efron, who is currently in Spain promoting his new movie Lorax. He had been on a stadium visit with Miguel Pardeza. He said of his visit and the Bernabéu, “this is truly special, it’s amazing. I want to see a match… I’ve seen it on TV many times and it’s an honor to be here. I don’t follow them [Madrid] that closely, but I’m definitely aware of them and I’ll be following a lot closer now.” Anyway, he got to meet (not the other way around) Kaká, Marcelo, Gonzalo Higuaín and José Mourinho (because they were “chilling in the parking lot and I just happened to run into them”). How cute is Marcelo getting Kaká to take a picture of him and Zac? The actor also got to meet Iker (did Iker break out his English? “Yes, the parties here are very es-pecial”). I wonder if Zac had any idea who these three guys were, and if he could even identify them as footballers.
Castilla also had a team lunch, and several of the boys tweeted photos from that, as well as who they were sitting next to. Álex tweeted that next to him were “the goalscorer Joselu and on the other side Carva and Morata, the other pichichi.” And as we can see, Jesús was next to them as well. Meanwhile, Jesé was sitting next to “two cracks,” Omar and Denis, “those fat ones who are uglier than me are not going to leave me any food.” Earlier, Álex had gone to pick up MFC ABMM for the training session, and he tweeted this adorable photo – how cute, Álex and Álvaro are the G-Star twins. And there’s also this picture from two days ago of roommates Omar and Jesé doing their grocery shopping together.
And the previous night, Cris’ Lamborghini Aventador broke down in the middle of Madrid, and had to be towed away (the tow truck guys looked pretty excited about it, by the way). That’s the big news, but can we talk about Cris’ outfit? First, he and Sergio obviously have the same (ugly) belt. Second, he kind of overdid it with the Gucci logos, no? But at least his pants appear to be the right length, for once.
Things to look forward to today: another press conference from Mou, which as we know, can never be never boring; a training session; the trip to Sevilla; and the Premios Alma gala.