la selección in XLSemanal, part I

More magazine appearances by our boys!  Iker, Xavi and the ever-popular El Guaje are the cover boys of the online magazine XLSemanal.  Inside, there are interviews with the three of them, plus mini-questionnaires.

It looks like the cool thing in Spanish journalism at the moment is to have the boys pose without a shirt on, but to only show us their heads!  Boo.

But I like how they made San Iker look like a religious icon by lighting the area behind his head.  I guess David and Xavi will be elevated to deities too, if they repeat their Euro 2008 performances at this year’s World Cup.

Here is the mini-questionnaire of Iker, with the fantastic interview and cover picture after the jump!  Learn all about what David Beckham taught our Iker, his quirks, his thoughts on tattoos and piercings, his thoughts on the king of Spain, what he does that his mother hates, and his brother the culé!  And where to possibly stalk Iker after the World Cup.

It all just reaffirms why I LOVE IKER SO MUCH.

The interviews of David and Xavi to follow…

Iker Casillas

I’m god good at…  playing cards and pocha.

I’m hopeless at… cooking.  I eat at “Casa Carmen” (his mother’s kitchen), where the best food is.

Xavi is… a crack, both on and off the field, although he gets angry when you call him “Pelopo.”  (If you don’t know why Xavi is Pelopo, it’ll be explained when I get to the chapter on nicknames in Los Secretos de La Roja).

Villa is… goals.

The World Cup…  Spain can be the surprise.  I hope so!  My other candidates: England and Brazil.

Iker Casillas

Q:  Do you feel relieved that the season is over?

A:  Relief?  No!  I don’t like ending the season without a title.  But it’s good to disconnect, have a change of scenery and think about the national team.  We’ll try and be better than Barcelona in the upcoming season.  In any case, this wasn’t my worst year, we’ve had worst ones when we went seasons without winning anything and Barcelona showed their difference with us.  This year, the two teams have been incredible.  You don’t score more than 100 goals or get close to 100 points every season!  They should give trophies to both teams for differentiating themselves so much from the rest, but that’s impossible, so you can only congratulate Barcelona.

Q:  What’s the last thing that made you very happy?  This year, Madrid has not given you much.

A:  Winning the Eurocopa.  There’s nothing that can be compared to that.  I hope to relive it with the World Cup.  We’re going to try.

Q:  After the Eurocopa, you grew a beard.  Because of a promise you made?

A:  No.  I tried it out and I liked it.  My mom liked it too.  And with it, I look a lot like my father, and as I’m older now, I like how I look with this look.  In addition, the King and Prince Felipe also grew beards, but I was the first!  (Laughs).  I set the trend.

Q:  You’ve done a lot of fashion spreads lately.  Will you enter into that world when you retire?

A:  No, no.  I like doing them.  My teacher was David Beckham (laughs).  He taught me how to pose.  I’m not too bad at it, right?  I’m not a fashion victim.  If I like an article of clothing and feel good in it, I’ll wear it, but I don’t go to fashion shows or follow fashion that closely.  Usually, I ask my female friends for advice, or even my mother, when I buy clothes.

Q:  What is the most ridiculous thing that people have said or written about you lately?

A:  Uf, lately, a lot of things.  Now, the gossip programs try and pry into the lives of everyone, and I’ve seen a lot of things I don’t like.  I don’t understand why they follow me every day, I don’t like it.  I’ve never spoken about my private life and I never will.

Q:  And in football?

A:  Well, for example, that Víctor Valdés should be the starting goalkeeper on the national team, and me the back-up.  These types of things hurt both of us.  And the decision is made by only one person, Vicente del Bosque.

Q:  Are you superstitious?

A:  I have some quirks, but they’re not superstitions.  I like to cut the sleeves of the shirts or fold my socks in a certain way.  Also, the typical, stepping onto the field with my right foot or touching the crossbar each time we score a goal.  I’m not very superstitious, or am I?  (Laughs).

Q:  You’re different than some of your teammates in that you don’t have any tattoos or piercings…

A:  I don’t see myself with them.  I respect those who have them, but they’re not for me.  When I was younger and playing in the youth team, they taught us to always be properly turned out.  Vicente del Bosque, when he was director of Madrid’s youth teams, didn’t like these things.  He asked to see our grades, told us to cut our hair if it was very long, and didn’t like tattoos or earrings.  I was taught like that and I follow that, but I respect those who have them.

Q:  Do the women of your family (your grandmother, mother) get very nervous when you play a game?

A:  No, they like watching.  My grandmother was the star of the Eurocopa and my mother suffered more than she ever had in her life watching the penalties against Italy.  She fainted and was so nervous.  She doesn’t like it when I get angry in the goal because there are a lot of cameras and they film everything I do.  Sometimes, they catch me saying or doing things that she doesn’t like, but you can’t avoid that.  I’m so focused that I don’t realize I do them until I see it later.

Q:  When you began to play in Madrid, did you dream of getting to where you are today?

A:  You always dream.  Now I look back and I remember entering the club via the Torneo Social and Antonio Mezquita, after trying out 300 boys, telling us, “of the 300 that are here now, only one or two will make it to the first team.”  That one was me.  It’s nice to remember where you came from and how much you’ve given to get there.  You should never forget that.

Q:  With the World Cup on the horizon, how many times have you remembered yourself lifting the Eurocopa trophy?

A:  I don’t know, a lot, 1,000 times, 2,000 times… It was the best moment of my sporting life and I dream of repeating it.  I’ll always remember what Michel Platini told me when he handed me the trophy: “I took this cup away from a goalkeeper (Arconanda) and today I’m returning it to another, the best of Europe.”  It was great and I feel very honored to have made the millions of Spaniards that followed us happy.

Q:  The first of which was the king, Juan Carlos.

A:  The king is great.  I have a very good impression of him, I’ve seen him many times and he’s always made a good impression on me.  After the final, he came into the locker room and told us that he was very proud that we made millions of Spaniards happy and he thanked us.  That doesn’t happen every day!

Q:  What game has given you goosebumps?

A:  I’ll always remember two: the day of my debut in the first division, and the quarterfinals of the Eurocopa against Italy.  I don’t know why, but I knew that that game would be decisive.  There were a lot of things in play, getting over our fear of the quarterfinals, beating the world champions… it was a lot for us.  I think that we knew we could be champions after that victory.

Q:  And the scariest game?

A:  The final of the Champions League against Bayer Leverkusen.

Q:  What is your mission as captain of the national team?

A:  It’s an honor to be the captain of the national team of your country.  I’m captain because I’ve been here for nine years and there are unwritten codes that say that the person who’s been there the longest is the captain, but there are also others who’ve been here a while, such as Marchena, Xavi or Puyol.  It’s not a source of conflict, everything is easy with my teammates and whatever we make, I consult with Puyol, Xavi and Fernando Torres first.  We always decide together.

Q:  Who would you make Spanish if you could?

A:  Messi, without a doubt.  He’s the best, he does things that only he knows how to do, and he does them often.  It’s incredible!

Q:  Did you celebrate when Barcelona was eliminated by Inter?

A:  Of course not.  I wanted Barcelona to go to the final.  If there’s a Spanish team in the Champions and Real Madrid isn’t, then I would always support the Spanish team.

Q:  Your brother was a Barcelona fan.  Does he still follow them, despite the successes of his older brother?

A:  I’m not too sure (laughs).  He always wanted me to win my games with Madrid, and of course with the national team, but it also made him happy when Barcelona won.  He always asked me for Stoichkov’s shirt when he was young, and when I got it, he was very happy.  He still has it.  Along with a lot of other ones (laughs).

Q:  You’ve gone to Africa many times on humanitarian missions.  How have these experiences affected you?

A:  They’ve impacted me.  The first time I went to Sierra Leone, the kids knew me by name.  They didn’t have television, but they knew of me.  We started building a school there.  Last year, I was in Mali, we went to build a hospital there with the money we collected from the malaria charity event with Rafa Nadal.

Q:  Will you do something similar this summer, after the World Cup?

A:  I would like to go to Haiti, we can help out a lot there.

Q:  You’ve been teased on the field as a consequence of a commercial (Groupama’s “Me Siento Seguro“).

A:  When it was on TV, the people behind the goal would sing it to me, and I laughed.  They did it to be funny and I don’t mind.  I prefer this to kids insulting me.