fun la roja news

Here is a round-up of the interesting news items about our team, from the last several days.

One. A chat with Vicente del Bosque.  He said the game against Germany was special to him (in addition to the victory) because it was the day of San Fermín, and both his father and brother are named Fermín, and so he thought of them.

Two. RTVE interviews Puyol, and goes to his hometown, La Pobla de Segur.  In the interview, he explains why he appeared before the queen of Spain in only a towel.  He said he was hiding in the back and didn’t want to come out, but he had to, so he covered himself with a towel.  [Does that mean he wasn’t wearing anything in the treatment room???]  In the end, “it was a honor that she was there with us.”  He also talks about his watch line CP5 (even the presenter has one).  They also give him a gift of photos of his goal.  In the second video, there’s great vintage footage of Carles (read: smaller hair) and they talk to his former coach.

Three. Cruzcampo, the beer company that’s an official sponsor of the national team, will give as a gift to all the players and the coaching team their weight in beer, to reward them for making it to the final.  That translates to 5,058 bottles of beer for the 1,686 kilos, with Fernando Llorente as the luckiest one, because he’s the heaviest.  Cruzcampo already did this two years ago at the Eurocopa, and Pepe Reina was the big winner then because he weighed 95 kg with all his clothes on.  Two years later, he’s lost 10 kg and is currently at 85 kg.  Mata (61 kg) and Navas (60 kg) will get the least amount of beer.

Four. People who will be at the final:  Rafa Nadal.  And Marcos Senna as well, at the invitation of the RFEF and his former teammates, will come to Johannesburg from Rio.  He’s been following the team and talking constantly to his Villarreal teammate Joan Capdevila.  Marcos’ foundation also has several projects in South Africa (he presented them last year during the Confederations Cup) including the construction of a school for disadvantaged kids.  I love Marcos for his personality, his skills and for being so charitable!  Santi Cazorla and Dani Güiza, two other beloved ex-members of the team, may also make an appearance.

Five. An article on the World Cup-winning U-20 Spanish team back in 1999.  The team featured Xavi, Iker and Carlos Marchena.  Iker remembers crocodiles in the swimming pool (note: the press actually started calling him the “caimán de Kaduna” – the alligator of Kaduna, with Kaduna being the Nigerian city where Iker started the semifinal game.  Of note for Madrid fans – Spain beat Mali in that game, and Mahamadou Diarrá was on that Malian team).

Xavi remembers Iker being “the same as he is now, just as responsible,” and Carlos “was already el pater, we always called him that for his common sense.”

Six. Spain will wear their blue kits – shirts, shorts & socks – for the final game, since they’ll be the visitors.  In the event that they win the World Cup, they’ll put on their red shirts for the award ceremony.

Seven. There will be a parade in Madrid on Monday afternoon for the team, win or lose.  At 19h, the players on their open air bus will travel from Moncloa to the Puente del Rey, passing through Princesa, the Plaza de España, Gran Vía, Cibeles, Neptuno, Atocha, the Ronda de Atocha, the Ronda de Valencia, the Glorieta de Embajadores, the Ronda de Toledo, the Puerta de Toledo, Gran Vía de San Francisco, Bailén, Palacio Real, and the Glorieta de San Vicente.

On that bus will be Álvaro, Vicente del Bosque’s son, who managed to extract a promise from his father that he be allowed to accompany the team on the bus.  (His father had previously shot down his request to go to the locker room to meet the players).  Vicente said that despite it not being protocol, he had to make this happen, because Álvaro is obsessed with it.

And you too can join the players, find out how here (you have to be a resident of Spain)!

Eight. Ok, this one is not so fun, but Efe reports via El Mundo that Sergio Busquets and Pedro were robbed in Durban.  Things were stolen from their rooms in the Protea Hotel while they were playing the semifinal game against Germany.  Biscuits had his wallet taken (there were personal things and €800 in there) from his room, while thieves stole some €1,000 that Pedro left in his room (he didn’t put it in the safe).

Nine. Updated ads from Iberdrola and Cruzcampo to reflect the current situation.