all set for Deportivo!

Real Madrid takes on Deportivo (I’m excited not only to watch my team, but also a player I have always admired, Juan Carlos Valerón) today at 20h at the Riazor!  That happens to be the only stadium in Spain where Cristiano has not yet scored.  It also happens to be the field where Madrid has only won once in the last 20 years.  But I’m confident we’ll pass with flying colors!

On the subject of Cristiano, you might remember seeing him with Amancio in the video Madrid prepared several weeks ago with five of the club’s legendary forwards.  What you might not know is that he is a native of A Coruña and came to Madrid from Deportivo.  And he gave us this anecdote, in a recent interview.  He was asked about his first game with Madrid, and his response was, “it was in Ghana.  It bothered me that I had the only shirt without the escudo on it.  I asked Alfredo di Stéfano about it.  I will never forget his response: ‘you first have to sweat to earn this escudo, chico.'”  Amén.

The team finished preparations for this game with a training session at Valdebebas, where everyone appeared to be in high spirits.

The Xabi Alonso pose section™, recovery edition!

MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín was sent out to face the press on Friday.  Look at that little face!  He is so adorable!  And I love his little mumbly voice as well, and how nervous he appeared to be at times!  Anyway, ABMM was asked about Sergio’s statement on El Hormiguero that he would root for Barça against a foreign team because he would always want for the Spanish team to win, and ABMM said it was a logical statement, since “you always have to go with Spanish teams if you feel Spanish.”  He also revealed that Mou is very friendly, always giving out advice and joking around, and for him, “he’s the best coach in the world.”

And once the team got to Galicia, Cris and Kaká signed autographs for the fans.  This little madridista didn’t seem to be to impressed to be in the middle of a Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká sandwich, or by Cris’ crooked hat (I’m not either) and the fact that Kaká’s hairstyle was more or less the same as hers in the front.

The Cris-Kaká bromance seems to have faded a bit from their first months in Madrid together, so it’s good to see the Chori-Pipa pairing going strong!

And I adore these drawings that Sami and Mesut  shared on Instagram!  I love how Mes’ eyes were rendered!  I just want to pat all of them on the head…

Other things.  The Adidas store at the Bernabéu reopened Thursday after several months of renovations, and on hand for the unveiling and celebration were Iker, Xabi, Ángel di María, Álvaro Arbeloa, Nacho, MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín, José Callejón, Ricardo Carvalho, Karim Benzema, Kaká, Antonio Adán (basically half the football team), Felipe Reyes, Carlos Suárez and Sergio Rodríguez (a quarter of the basketball team).

They helped to “open” up the store by removing the Adidas and Real Madrid “bricks.”  It was like a giant game of Jenga… and Xabi was the one to make it topple down.  We also heard some good news from Iker.  He said, “I’m slowly regaining strength in the hand, we’re about at the midpoint of the injury.  I still have one month more to go, and I’ll have to make an effort and suffer a bit more to get back the mobility that I had.  Dr. Del Cerro, who operated on me, gave the worst case scenario, which was three months of recovery.  But the other day, when he took off the splint, he was happy with the progress and he estimated that it could take four weeks more, and I’m happy about that.”  During the event, he was seen doing exactly that, exercising his hand to regain strength in it.

Notice that Xabi is wearing almost the same exact outfit he wore in the video!  The cardigan is the same and jeans are the same; he just swapped the polo shirt for one without a blue collar.  He’s also the only one not covered in the Adidas logo!  Muy jefe.  And also note that Felipe, Carlos and José are wearing the same jacket, but in different colors, and the same goes for Ricardo, Nacho and Iker’s sweatshirts, as well as Ángel and Antonio’s jackets.  Guess there was only a limited supply of clothes to choose from!

All of the players were asked to speak a bit.  Xabi said he’s trying to recover as quickly as possible.  Karim said he has room to improve and hopes to score more goals, although the most important thing is for the team to win games.  Calleti said wearing the Madrid shirt is a dream he had, and therefore each time he puts it on, he tries to take advantage of the opportunity and give it all he has.  Kaká said he’s happy to capture headlines for his performance on the field and not for other reasons.  MFC ABMM said he hopes to one day “be comparable to one of the best forwards in history, Morientes.”  Moro and Mora!  And Antonio Adán spoke about his “fantastic” teammate, Diego López: “he was my coach when he was in the third division and I was a youth player, when he came to coach us one day.   Then we were teammates when Capello was coach.  He’s a fantastic teammate, he has adapted well and we’re all very happy with him.”

All of the boys also put their hands in clay for a Real Madrid walk of fame.

Iker put just his right hand, while everyone else did both hands.  It seemed to require a lot of effort, and luckily for MFC ABMM, Nacho was there to literally give him a hand!

The final result!

For Real Madrid fans, this store is like paradise!

While Iker, Xabi, José and MFC ABMM were busy shooting the spot for the new store last Friday, Marcelo, Sergio, Álvaro Arbeloa and Gonzalo Higuaín were at the Hilton shooting spots for Madrid’s newest sponsor, Beiersdorf’s Nivea for Men.  One week after the shoot, Madrid and Nivea officially signed the three-year sponsorship agreement and debuted the spots.  On hand were FP, and of course the footballers who starred in the ads.

Here are the boys watching themselves in the commercials!

They seemed to really enjoy seeing themselves and each other!

Pipita, as usual, could not keep a straight face, especially in the presence of Marcelo!

I’m liking this collaboration so far!  I hope there are many more spots!