I love the banter…
And since we’re always curious about footballers and their English speaking abilities…
David Villa (well, David’s team) sent out this tweet on Tuesday, to bring attention to a UNICEF campaign to help children suffering from malnutrition. Upon seeing this, Cesc tweeted back (in Spanish), “what English dictionary do you use to write so well? You don’t even know how to say hello (in English).”
@Guaje7Villa q diccionario de inglés usas para escribir tan bien? Si no sabes ni decir hello.—
Cesc Fàbregas Soler (@cesc4official) January 03, 2012
And David’s response (in Spanish, though he should have written in English to really get his point across, no?) was, “you’re a great teacher for me! I didn’t need to live eight years in London to speak English well, jaja.”
@cesc4official Tú estás siendo un gran maestro para mí!!! No me ha hecho falta vivir 8 años en Londres para defenderme con el inglés ja ja—
David Villa (@Guaje7Villa) January 03, 2012
P.S. David’s team should share this “dictionary” with Iker. A party will not be easy, cronies!
Javi (!!!) is excited about 2012
Newspaper Diario de Navarra recently published an article on reasons to be excited about 2012, and they interviewed people from a normal couple expecting twins to our Javi Martínez (!!!).
Playing in the Eurocopa
He believes that each year is more important than the one before. That’s why, at his 23 years of age, Javi Martínez has reasons to “take a bite” out of 2012. He’s very willing in front of the cameras, and he was also very curious about how this newspaper functions, peering into every corner that he passed by. He admits that studying journalism is one of his pending tasks. And his mother’s dream, he laughs. “But as an investigative reporter, ¿eh?,” he says immediately. “Or freelance.”
¡feliz 2012!
¡Feliz 2012! I hope this year was great for you all, and that next year will be even better! And that of course applies to La Roja as well! Here’s a little end of the year post.
PART I. It’s been quite a year for La Roja, even though no titles were to be won in 2011 (for the senior team that is, we did win the Euros at the U-19 and U-21 levels, with Javi (!!!) of course captaining the latter team to success…). During this year, Iker became the most capped player in Spanish national team history, surpassing Andoni Zubizarreta against Costa Rica on Nov. 15, his 127th game with La Roja. Xavi, meanwhile, got his 100th cap on March 25 against the Czech Republic, and then became the field player with the most number of games played, surpassing Raúl’s 102 games against Liechtenstein on Sept. 6. He ended the year at 107. David Villa became the all-time top goalscorer against the Czech Republic on March 25, scoring his 45th and 46th goals, allowing him to surpass Raúl’s 44 goals. By the end of the year, he would reach 51 goals.
it runs in the family
Check out this ridiculously cute video of PF Juan Mata, with his sister Paula. It’s a preview of a special his club’s TV channel did with him, and in this part, Juanín doesn’t speak too much English, but he’s still adorable, as is Paula. Paula explains to us that they live together in England, and that she’s happy about it, because it’s the first time they’ve been together in almost 10 years, as her brother left home at the age of 15, when she was 17. Paula also says “of course he’s a good brother, he’s the only one I have, so I can’t say anything bad about him… Mom! We love you and we love each other!” From now on, Paula Mata also gets a PF in front of her name, because she’s every bit as great as her brother. So here’s to you, PF Paula Mata.
all I want for Christmas…
Yes, the “Villancinco” is finally out, and it turned out even more adorable than I had imagined, thanks to the stellar presence of one Javi Martínez (!!!). Fernando Llorente, David Villa, Santi Cazorla and Álvaro Arbeloa round out the cast of this Villancinco. Does this mean they were the only ones brave enough to sing, or will we get another one from the rest of the players in this campaign – Xavi, Xabi, David Silva and possibly Iker?
I love how the boys wore tuxedo jackets, and how Álvaro casually hung his over his shoulder! And they all sing better than expected; I’d love to see a boy group made up of La Roja players!!! My five would be Fernando Llorente, Javi Martínez (!!!), Sergio Ramos, PF Juan Mata and Pepe Reina. How about yours?
happy Friday!!!
A week and a half ago, Benjamín Zarandona (whom I only know about due to that infamous Halloween party) headed to Bilbao to interview Ander Herrera for Cuatro. And of course, no meeting with Ander is complete without some Javi Martínez (!!!), yay! I love Ander for inviting him (!!!) along! Javi (!!!) says that at first Ander didn’t like Japanese food and was a big pain about it when they went to eat Japanese. And when asked about the Eurocopa and how the qualifying went, Javi (!!!) responds, “people always tells me that there’s no way to explain what being a father is like. Well, it’s like that, I don’t know how to explain what it’s like being a world champion.”* Watch the video here.
* I’d be more than happy to help Javi (!!!) out so that he can feel what being a father is like, to our children (!). [One exclamation mark, because after all, half of their genes come from Javi Martínez (!!!).]
sending good thoughts…
David Villa is out for possibly six months after breaking his tibia while playing with his club in the Club World Cup. As this type of injury usually requires six months of recovery time, David’s participation in this summer’s Eurocopa is in doubt. So, good thoughts and a ¡mucho ánimo! go out to David; let’s hope he recovers as soon as possible. And hopefully, other Spanish forwards can step it up in these last six months before the tournament and during the actual tournament, so that we won’t miss David too much if he is unable to recover in time.
Many of his La Roja teammates have sent their best wishes in the form of tweets, such as Gerard Piqué, Sergio Ramos, Fernando Llorente, Cesc, PF Juan Mata, Carles Puyol, Pepe Reina, Iker Casillas (who has already spoken to David) or Andrés Iniesta.
El Guaje himself said (via Facebook) that “I’m convinced that I’ll recover quickly, and I’m thinking about playing in the final in Munich and in the Eurocopa. I’m going to work hard for that. Count on me!!!”
Meanwhile, VDB said this was very bad news, but added that there are six more months to go before he has to give out the list for the Eurocopa, and “some recover faster than others” and so “we’ll see, we’ll wait and see.”
they’re not only great footballers…
… but also great persons. Let’s start with Fernando Llorente.
Remember the Euro qualifier Spain played earlier this year on March 29 against Lithuania, in which Fernando Llorente wore a shirt without the star, and Álvaro Arbeloa joked about how they were going to have to draw it in for him? Well, now we know why.
Fernando heads Save the Children’s latest campaign, “donate your star.” And he’s done exactly that, giving his star to the adorable six-year-old Aarti, whom he met while traveling to India this past summer and who is the other protagonist of the campaign. This initiative is an effort to help children receive the proper medical treatment that they need in order to survive and make it past the age of five, when their chances of survival increase.
Aarti is so tiny next to Fernando!
