Hail The Messiah – Ronaldo Makes First Appearance in Madrid

Despite being a very naughty boy in California during the summer break, Cristiano Ronaldo was welcomed to Madrid today in the manner of a messiah, with an estimated 80,000 fans packing the Santiago Bernabeu to catch their first glimpse of the Portuguese superstar football player.

The local TV news proudly reported that this number of fans turning up just for a player unveiling was a world record, beating even the welcoming of Maradona (dirty Argie cheat) to Napoli in 1984.

Frankly, this is madness, and also seems a bit desperate. Yes, it was a torrid 2008/09 season, having to watch Barca win the ‘Triple’  and, yes, we have had two weeks of absolutely scorchio weather that has made even grizzled Manchego farmers complain of being hot, but 80,000 people, waiting up to 3 hours, just to see a bloke strut down a catwalk and give a press conference? Lunacy.

The madness was even affecting the club physio who stated he was ‘amazed’ at Cristiano’s condition and that the player has “an extraordinary cardiac and lung capacity.” Riiiiiight. Whatever.

Florentino Pérez, the Real Madrid president and architect of the Ronaldo and Kaká transfers, looked on at the proceedings with a smile a kilometer wide. Let’s hope that smile is still there halfway through next season. He’s called in some serious financial favours to fund these acquisitions and he desperately needs them to pay off. He’s already started trying to cover his back by calling for a new Euro Super League only for big clubs in order to guarantee them sufficient revenues.

Kaka Belongs to Real Madrid

Tonight, the Real Madrid website has announced that the 27 year old Brazilian football star Kaka has been sold from AC Milan and that he has agreed a six-year contract to come to Spain and play at the Bernabeu.

A statement on the Milan website read: “From next season, Kaka will play at Real Madrid… It will be very difficult to fill the void that will be left by Kaka, a shining example of commitment and professionalism. AC Milan, on behalf of the the managers, players and supporters of the Rossoneri, offer him the most cordial and affectionate wishes for continuation of his sporting career.”

The transfer fee is reputed to be approximately £57 million, which would be  world record.

The announcement on the English part of Real Madrid’s website read: “Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, Kaka, now plays for Real Madrid following the deal reached with A.C. Milan. The Brazilian footballer satisfactorily passed a full medical checkup. Kaka has signed a contract linking him to Real Madrid for the next six seasons.”

Kaka is a great striker and goal provider, but he brings something more. He is a marketing dream. Clean cut and handsome his religious faith is well documented. He regularly tithes a portion of his earnings to his church, his favourite book is the Bible, and his favourite band is a gospel rock group called Resgate, “redemption” in Portuguese. Maybe he will be the source of redemption for Real, who desperately need some after a poor year of failure on the pitch and internecine squabbling amongst the ’socios’.

When Brazil won the World Cup in 2002, and again when Milan triumphed in the Champions League final of 2007, Kaka revealed a T-shirt emblazoned with the words: “I belong to Jesus.” Well now, he belongs to Real Madrid as well. Desde Madrid al cielo? Vamos a ver.

Real vs Barca – The Build Up

Since Tuesday, when Chelsea nilled Barcelona away, hopes have been rising in Madrid that maybe, just maybe, Real could put one over the old enemy in Saturday’s second leg of ‘el Clasico’. A win in the Bernabeu would bring Real to within one point of the Catalans with four matches to play. ‘Squeaky bums time’ as someone in football once said.

The default mode of Spanish sports reporting is ‘intense’ but they’ve managed to ratchet it up a few notches . The national and local TV news and radio talk shows have been frothing up the tension all week and yesterday the sports paper AS consisted of 22 pages of Real-Barca, the TV guide and a picture of a semi-naked babe (she thinks 2-1 to Madrid BTW).

Also yesterday, the daily magazine show on TV called España Directo got caught up in the hype – and got caught out. A live report from Nuevos Ministerios was showing a special grand digital screen that has been set up to show text messages sent from Barca and Real fans (or anyone else who wanted to get involved) via something similar to Twitter – A Twitterfall in public as it were. Well, the super enthusiastic reporter was interviewing those responsible for the set-up and then getting vox-pops from people who had stopped to check out the excitement when he turned to the camera and said – OK let’s check out some of the messages. The camera focused on the screen and while there three messages flashed up, one after the other. The first said (and I’m paraphrasing here) ‘Stick it up your arse Barca, go f*** your mothers”, the second was simply “Sex!” and the third was “Eto, f*** off back to Africa and take your CDs with you” (a reference to the fact that many illegal African immigrants sell bootlegged CDs and DVDs on the streets).

They hurriedly cut back to the studio where the host presenter smoothly went on to another item.

Real Madrid Remains Top Of Rich List

Deloitte’s annual Football Money League was published yesterday with an analysis of football club revenues for the 2007-8 season. It showed Real Madrid, Manchester United and Barcelona retaining their top three positions.

Real Madrid increased revenue 4 per cent to €365.8m, even though commercial revenue fell, and the club is budgeting for €400m in revenue this season.

More details can be found at the Football Economy website.

Schalke 04 Atleti

Finally something to cheer about here in Madrid. Last night Atletico de Madrid won through to the Champions League proper after destroying Schalke 04 by, err.. 4-0 – a most pleasing symmetry.

This second-leg match (following a 0-0 draw in Germany) was marked by a raucous full-house and the attendance of his holy fatness, Mr ‘hand-of-God’ Maradona. Escorted by some blonde tart, the drug abusing cheat watched events unfold from the directors’ box (called ‘el palco’ in Spanish). He witnessed a supreme performance from Atleti and an even better one by fellow countryman Aguero who pulled out a whole box of football tricks for the night, thoroughly confused the visiting club form Gelsenkirchen.

Such has been the lack of success for Atletico in recent years, qualification for ‘el Champions’ was seen as a decent excuse for some supporters to go dancing in the fountains at the Plaza de Neptuno – an act usually reserved for cup wins or league titles. Bless.

It’s 12 years since Atleti last qualified for the Champions League while over on the other side of town Real Madrid have qualified every year bar one. How dearly the striped-ones would like to put one over on the white-ones. Maybe this will be the year.

Campeones

Spain won the Football EuroCup 2008 last night and Madrid welcomed their heroes home this evening, lining the streets all the way from Barajas airport to Plaza Colon, where a crowd of well over 100,000 people went completely loco as skipper Castillas presented the trophy.

Substitute goalie Pepe Reina proved to be the joker of the squad, leading the assembled throng in a series of songs and chants and winding the spectators up into even more delirium.

Last night the streets of central Madrid were a sea of red and yellow, cars honking their horns, people banging drums and dancing in all available fountains. Joy unconfined. Your correspondent finally went to bed at 2.30am when he suddenly realised he wasn’t actually Spanish and had work in the morning. But it was an empty office he turned up to at 9.00am – and people only drifted in at around 10 to 11 o’clock. Very happy people, of course, but all looking a bit green about the gills. I shudder to think how much beer must have been consumed in the city last night.

Congratulations Spain. A well deserved championship since they were clearly the class act of the whole tourney. Viva Espana!

Dancing In The Streets – Spain 3 Russia 0

It’s midnight here in Madrid, and as I write the TV is showing hundreds of Spanish football supporters (most under 20 years of age) still dancing in Plaza Colon, the central square where television station Cuatro has set-up it’s base for the duration of the football EuroCup 2008.

For every match featuring ‘la seleccion’ thousands of young fans gather under the massive Spanish flag that flies from the centre of the square, and in full view of three massive screens on which the game is relayed. Tonight’s semi-final versus Russia brought out the biggest crowd yet, while the 3-0 scoreline, and the way the team played, has got everyone really confident. They believe they can win the whole thing.

Following the final whistle we had people out on their balconies, banging drums and chanting / singing songs. My quadrant of town is quite familified so it’s the kids who did most of the shouting, with the odd adult encouraging them on with a bellow here and there.

It’s exciting. The team are exciting. It’s all shaping up perfectly – except now, for the final, it’s the Germans, and how many sporting dreams have they shattered in the past? Pues, venga. !Vamos! !A por ellos!

Let’s see if this exciting style the Spanish national team play is worth a Championship.

Wednesday Night Football Action: Real vs Barcelona

With the title wrapped up last Sunday, Real Madrid had one last piece of important business to attend to: the return match of ‘El Clasico’.

For Real, the match turned out to be a minor ‘clasico’. For Barca, a ‘pesadilla’ (nightmare).

First, Raul scored early. He got a lucky bounce but swept the ball beautifully into the net.
Second, Robbben glanced in a header.
Third, Higuain steamed through a now shell-shocked defence and drove the ball past Valdez in goal.
Fourth, Van Nistelrooy (who had literally just been on the pitch just 30 seconds replacing Raul) scored a penalty
Fifth – Casillas makes a phenomenal save from a Messi curler, tipping the ball ’round the post – denying the little Argentine what would have at least been the consolation of being the best goal of the night.

And in between, the men in white played tici-tac one touch football, we had a well-timed thunderstorm at half-time (complete with lightening!) and the fans got a chance to chant the name of all the players.

In the 87th minute Messi did manage to split a high-sitting Real Madrid defense, threading through a gem of a ball to Henry who clipped past Casillas – and the visitors did then press for the remaining five minutes of time played. But they knew the moment had gone and it was all a bit half-hearted. Xabi got himself sent off in the last minute in a fit of pique. Either that or he got temporary tourettes syndrome. ARSE! GIRLS! REAL MADRID! FECK! He got laughed at as he trudged off the pitch.

Real supporters don’t do a lot of singing. It’s one of the first things you notice when you attend a match. But a few ditties were belted out during the game tonight and everyone stayed behind for the champions attenuated lap of honour – mainly attenuated ‘cos of the rain. This domestic season has been a bit of a stroll in the park, so it’s now apparent that the early failure in Europe requires analysis from the manager. Close season has officially started so now come the transfer rumours. Let’s see what happens.

Real Madrid – Richest Football Club In The World

The annual Deloitte Football Money League figures were released today – and Real Madrid came top for the third year running.

Deloitte base their figures on three revenue streams: matchday income, commercial income and broadcasting.  Real Madrid totalled £236 million for financial year 2006/07 (up 20% from £197m in the year previous) which was split 39% commercial (£91.8m), 38% broadcasting (£89.1m) and 23% matchday (£55.3m). Real’s figure included part of their £740 million deal TV contract with Mediapro spread over 7 years.

Chippy catalunyan side Barcelona CF came in third (posting £195.3m) after Manchester United FC of England (£212.1m) and Valencia came in 19th (£72.4m). 

For more analysis see The Political Economy of Football’s article Real Madrid Outpoint United in Money League. This site also has financial and attendance statistics for over 100 European clubs. A veritable mine of interesting football info.

Cross-town rivals Atletico de Madrid didn’t make the top twenty and were also at the wrong end of a tough match against Bolton Wanderers in their first leg UEFA cup match - losing 1-0 and seeing their wunderkind substitute Sergio Aguero get sent off for spitting on 74 minutes.

Real Madrid Score Super Seven

Last week’s deserved loss to Almeria appears to have had a cathartic effect on Real Madrid. Apparently cruising at the head of La Liga, with nearest rivals Barcelona falling away by only picking up away draws, the 0-2 away defeat had come as a shock.

Tonight the all-whites came back to their senses. And scored seven goals in the process.  

In a way, the scoreline doesn’t reflect Real Valladolid’s own ability. No, really, don’t laugh. Because the fact is Luis Mendilibar’s team (playing  in light purple tonight - yeuch) actually created a deal of chances and could have scored several themselves. Only piss-poor finishing and yet more heroics from Casillas in goal kept the Madrid goal intact in the first 30 minutes. The trouble was, Valladolid’s ambition was their downfall. Playing so far up the field, committing men to attack, especially in the wide positions, yes they were making chances, but they were also exposing the defensive line. Fatally. Because above all, tonight was a lethal display of the art of counter-attack.  

The majority of the damage was donein the last 15 minutes of the first half when Real scored four.  Guti was the creator, picking up loose balls and carving out long passes that allowed the forwards to get in behind the defensive line -the exposed Valladolid ‘keeper each time being left in one-on-one situations.

Five-nil at half time, Real added two more after the break making it the league’s biggest win of the season and Valladolid’s biggest defeat in ther club’s 79-year history.

The Scorers:

Julio Baptista 7
Raul 30
Robben 32
Raul (pen) 37
Guti 43
Guti 62
Drenthe 80