… and I volunteer mine!
The Christmas lunch.
The football and basketball teams held their annual Christmas lunch at the Bernabéu on Monday, alongside the four trophies won this year: the Liga and the Supercopa de España for the football team, and the Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España for the basketball team.
The players were divided as such. The two captains, Iker Casillas and Felipe Reyes, sat at the presidential table alongside FP, various vice presidents, head coaches and Alfredo di Stéfano, among others. As for the rest, they sat like this.
Table 1: Marcelo, Di María, Higuaín, Álvaro Borja Morata Martín, Nacho, Jesús, Sergio Rodríguez, Carlos Suárez, Jaycee Carroll.
Table 2: Xabi, Álvaro Arbeloa, Sergio, Adán, Callejón, Albiol, Guillermo Hernangómez, Rudy, Sergio Llull.
Table 3: Pepe, Cris, Coentrão, Kaká, Carvalho, Rafael Hettsheimeir, Nikola Mirotić, Mirza Begić.
Table 4: Özil, Essien, Modrić, Benzema (a big NO for the outfit), Varane, Khedira, Dontaye Draper (Don Draper???), Marcus Slaughter, Martynas Pocius.
There was of course also time for chatting before the meal began. Why does it look like Pipa and Xabi only met each other for the first time that day?
This year’s Christmas present was the iPad mini.
Hospital visits.
Following the lunch, the players were once again divided up and sent out to the main hospitals of Madrid to hand out gifts and bring some Christmas cheer to sick children.
I love what Mesut and Sami wrote about their experiences. Mesut wrote: “an amazing event: Together with Martynas Pocius, one of Real’s basketball players, Sami Khedira and I went to see children at Universitario Hospital – a wonderful Christmas surprise for the children. Get well soon, kids!” Adorable! And Sami posted about the experience, “we visited the hospital in madrid today..the Kids were happy, so i was too..i’m amazed by this joy of living..” And how cute was it that Nikola was so excited to hang out with his “idol” Kaká?
I really love all of these men!
No child without a gift campaign.
Earlier in the day, before the lunch, the Realmadrid Foundation once again presented the “this Christmas, no child without a gift” campaign. On hand were Pepe, Cris and Kaká (who is in serious need of a haircut), plus Rudy and Sergio Llull, to hand out gifts and smiles. I love how Pepe, Cris and Rudy wore ties! Sergio looked quite casual next to them, as he would also later on with the other captains at Sanitas La Moraleja. During his remarks, FP said Real Madrid “never gives up, no matter how difficult the challenges are,” and he was speaking both about the efforts of the foundation to help out the disadvantaged, as well as the teams that play for the club.
Cris looked quite interested in this gift…
Realmadrid Foundation Christmas greetings.
Three of the four football and basketball captains also filmed Christmas greetings on behalf of the Realmadrid Foundation. Iker did his in Spanish.
Sergio did his in both Spanish and English! Judging by his accent and mispronunciation of several of the words, no help went on there. The result is adorable though, even if you can see his eyes move as he reads the teleprompter, because hearing him speak English is such a novelty. Side note: I thought I would miss the long hair, but the short hair has grown on me and I think he looks fantastic!
“Hi, we hof all of you had a greet time playing foot-ball at Real Madrid Foondation es-school. Marry Cris-ma and Happy New Year.” Poor Sergio received a lot of abuse for being brave and speaking English (after all, we didn’t see Iker do it!), and he responded with a classy message via twitter: “for the smile of a child, English, German, Russian… whatever is needed!” Love him! But really, how do he and Mesut understand each other in English?
Felipe also did versions in two languages…
… and his English one was much more successful than Sergio’s.