Fútbolita

Robinho may have been on holiday in South Africa, but he’d better be worried because Neymar is ready to rock the house! Santos emerged winners of the Copa do Brasil last night, despite losing 2-1 to Victoria, simply because they already won the first leg of the match. Muito legal, indeed and Neymar decided to celebrate by wearing a shirt with a message dedicated to his family (“pai, mãe, irmã e amigos após a partida”) and climbed over barricades to celebrate with the fans which was splendid.

Edu Dracena opening the scoring for Santos, but even though Vitoria turned the heat up with goals from Wallace and Júnior, they managed to contain their opponents and duly celebrated in estilo Brasileiro.

Oh, look what we have here! It’s IkerBonero getting it on again in Los Angeles. Wait, isn’t he supposed to be IN preseason training doing drills or something, with the goalkeeping coach?!! That’s right, this is a pretty “old” photo, but it was still worth posting anyway. All you lucky folks from LA probably already witnessed the Pied Piper of Higuain’s double against Club America last night.

Oh dude, es temprano, pero que está listo! (it’s early, but you’re ready). Keep it coming, yeah?

Last season, all eyes were on Antonio Valencia (who quite frankly, hasn’t lived up to his billing). This season, the United aficionados will be screaming Chicharito’s name like he’s the new Jalapeño mixed drink! So of course, tipo will be feeling a tad bit of pressure when the BPL kicks off and your nine million neighbours start unveiling their AON plastered jerseys with their names personalised.

Whatever the case, Chicharito will not tolerate any hatin’ this season because he’s in the fetus clique with the likes of the Da Silva brothers and they all can throw a mean punch when Berbatov walks past. DO NOT MESS!

And as for his teammate, Anderson, we feel truly sorry for him after learning about the car crash, but this is certainly not going to help his career.

via Reuters, AFP, Terra, Hola

“Ei Kaka, o que você está fazendo?!!” must be the only thing to come out of Senhor MouMou’s mouth in that picture. After all, Kaka hasn’t been training with the Merry Madrid Men and spent the most of yesterday suntanning and on the chairs next to Wedgeillas. There was certainly a little bit of “Mano a Mano” going on there between the Spaniard and the Brazilian. Even Kaka wanted to find out with Eva Langoria made them all eat for dinner in LA last week!

On the subject of MouMou, his favourite protégé, Zlatan Ibracadabra has declared that he is ready to face his old boss in the upcoming La Liga season. Ya’ll know what will happen if he moves from Barca! There’s simply no way that will happen without some sort of backlash.

“He is the best or one of the best coaches in the world. I don’t believe in Madrid, but I believe in Mourinho,” said Zlatan. Aawww.

via Sky Sports, Gettyimages

So Eva Langoria invited IkerBonero to dinner in Los Angeles, but forgot her Mexican amigos altogether? For the love of Vela… she could’ve dialed for Marquez and/or Chicharito! Hombre would’ve taken a flight that very instant to be with Gabrielle Solis – just ask Jesse Metcalfe! la vida es injusta cuando se es joven!

And as for Sara, oh how we love you but gurrrrrl, that is not a great picture. This one below, however, is awesome. Langoria’s whole sweater ensemble is really cool and now we know she isn’t one hundred percent Revlon all the time!

Interestingly, Alejandro Sanz and Penelope Cruz’s brother also joined in the dinner celebrations. Speaking of which, hermosa probably couldn’t make it because she was too busy with Javier Bardem. Aww, these blissfully married Madrilenos.

via EGO

Ooh la la, Bobojan is giving you the eye in this picture. Quick everyone, do something! Tipo was said to be dating Sara Carbonero’s sister, Cristina, but he has denied this claim and is still with Blanca, his current namorada.

Anyway, many of you may be wondering how Bojan feels about his best friend, Pedrito and his World Cup win. After all, they both had equal chances to make the final squad… until Del Bosque maxed out his number of attackers for the final list and you know you can’t have everything. Well, he’s not bitter but admitted that he felt “healthily envious” when La Furia won.

“I am as delighted as all the players (as) we would have liked to be there. My goal is to return to the selection. I’ll work for it.”

Bobojan still has Euro 2012 to work towards, and we’re sure that he’ll be called to the squad then! In the meantime, here’s a bonus of Spain’s new favourite lovebirds, IkerBonero (move aside, Raul and Mamen!)

Photos via Gettyimages/Bellazon

So The Messiah is incredibly exhausted.. but he still has six months to go until they crown the new FIFA World Player of the Year, so tipo has to WORK IT! It must be incredibly tiring to go back to playing football right after the World Cup, so he was nice enough to pick all the players whose teams went out early in the tournament. Obviously, folks like Materazzi had ample time to go for a spa, enjoy a manicure AND get inked at the same time while Lucio, as ya’ll know, has been hitting the bitch with Juan!

Edgar Davids and Kevin Urandi also didn’t have anything to say to Marco and Lucio, so they decided to have their own conversations (as seen below) instead. Seriously, what could Edgar and Lucio have spoken about? Felipe Melo?

It’s that time of the year again… the “Gêmeo Season!” The question is, can you tell the Da Silva brothers apart below? Meu Deus, someone needs to give them a hairdryer, the Perpetual Greaseano look is not working!!

Anyway, caras are now in the USA with the rest of the United gang as part of their pre-season tour. They’d better bring their Futbolita tees along for the ride. Hmmm, Fabio (left) is trying to recall where na terra he put it!

Last, and certainly not least, es hora de Ikerbonero! They’re now officially Pap material, which means you’ll probably be seeing them every morning at the breakfast table as you sip tea next to Arsene Wenger.

Anyway, here they are after enjoying a nice little dinner and getting into Wedgiellas’ car. OK, we don’t really care where they’re heading to or if he decides to get a new haircut, but he’d better keep Sara because she’s one of the few girls he has dated with actual brains!

via Gettyimages, Hola and AFP

For the record, all the talk about Senorita Sara Carbonero causing Spain’s bad run of form (and distracting Iker) is pretty fastidioso! If you had access like she does to La Furia Roja y Amigos, of course you’d seize the opportunity to do your job well. CREO QUE NOS (believe us) – Casil-ass is not the easiest person to talk to and he isn’t necessarily the nicest one too (that goes to Villa, yaaaay!) Carbonero just happens to be dating him, which means she gets the SCOOP! And all those reports that say he supposedly can’t retrieve balls (no pun intended) anymore because she’s standing there trying to file a report is just MERDE. Gente, she’s just doing her job and if you’re going to talk about professionalism, you ought to know that there are a lot of aspects in football severely LACKING there.

For the record, Carbonero isn’t the dainty WAG who sits by the stands and claps politely (Ok sorry Posh, you are still FABU!) She IS part of futbol and we’re proud to call her a FEISTY FUTBOLITA! Por supesto, she’s also muy lindaaaaa! And while we’re at it… dónde has comprado su delineador de ojos??

I, I, I… I don’t know if I can talk about Spain’s surprise defeat to Switzerland last week without welling up in tears again. Let’s just say it had been a long week and perhaps this cold I’ve come down with is actually a Case of the Sads. But sick and miserable or not, I wasn’t about to miss the Spain vs Honduras match. I dashed out of work—late as usual and without even a moment to change into my Fútbolita camiseta—and ducked into a miscellaneous Madrileño bar precisely at kick-off, wherein I Serendipitously ran into some friends. Another time and place I may have chuckled at this, but there was no time—GAME.ON.

From the start, you could just tell Spain wanted it more this time around. It was great to see El Niño starting—break me off a piece of that Torres-New-Haircut Bar—but it soon become apparent that he is not quite up to speed just yet. A knee injury is not easy to bounce back from and perhaps his spirits are running a little low because of it. But to be fair, he never stopped running and hustling—a goal from Torres will come soon I feel. In the meantime, let’s be grateful for David Villa and his bounty of goals—I’ll forgive him for missing that penalty kick this time. With Torres in inferior form or not, Villa always plays better when he’s got his main wingman Torres on field with him.

Ohhhh, and Señorita Carbonero:

Muchisimas gracias from staying out his view this time! Though my novio wasn’t tested much this match.

Pero, pobrecitooooo Piqué! He is getting NO love this Mundial and has definitely got to be feeling the pain in Spain. Busted open forehead, crushed family jewels and and busted lip—let’s hope he makes it out of the Spain vs Chile match with all his appendages in working order. I nearly gagged along with him when I saw that medic spray whatever that was in his mouth, then made him suck on a piece of toilet paper (???) for the rest of the match. Every time the screen went to him everyone at the bar burst out laughing and screaming, “chúpate!” [suck on it!]

Piqué, we thank you—and I hope you can still procreate.

POOOOR FIN! Boca Juniors are winning again and doing justice to their celebrity fans and proud graduates i.e. Tevez the Tasmanian Devil. More importantly, following his brace against Arsenal de Sarandi, Martin Palermo is telling The Dona to ditch Kun and pick him instead for Argentina! Patience man, the Argentinean attack is getting a little bit too crowded these days. They say the fastest way is to follow The Dona to a weekend spa but disculpe tios!, you’ll have to compete with Veronica Ojedo for that.

Yes, it’s a little dark but it’s Real’s goalkeeper, Iker Wedgiellas, his beard and amiguita, Sara Carbonero! The duo headed out to a little pizzeria in Madrid on Saturday aka el derbi/Messiahdista day! By the way, Saralita is a Spanish sports journalist (a hundred bonus points) and por supesto, she is gawwwwjus!

Anyway, she was with him on the morning of el clasico (the grannies of the world are collectively raising their eyebrows!) and accompanied to “console him” after the game. Onlookers also said they were very “lovey-dovey” and we say por que no?

Yes, Mexico’s little Chicharito aka Javier Hernandez is making all the United fanaticos EBRIOS de entusiasmo... drunk with excitement about his arrival to England. He’ll officially start work in July, which means that he’ll join them after South Africa so ya’ll can stop fussing because you’ll get a preview of what’s to come.

Anyway, looking at tipo, he is clearly the hybrid of Ibrahim Afellay and Cicinho but the ‘little pea’ also has a girlfriend named Leticia Sahagún! Here they are at a Chivas (Chicha’s former club) black tie event… He’d better not dump her for a Jordan lookalike when he comes to the UK. Ten ciudado!

via Hola, Reuters, Medio Tiempo

So here comes Higuain, looking as suave as ever on the streets of Madrid. Lovely…! Anyway, the Madridistas all came together to attend Guti’s dinner celebration that the Fallen Favourite held to honour his “14 years at the club in the number 14″ on Wednesday. Raul The Great One couldn’t attend it because he had to be with his wife, Mamen, who is expecting her fifth child. Greaseano gave it a miss too because he was experimenting on the effects of Clear Shampoo on Mama Dolores’s new pet poodle. Kkkkk, the truth is his ankle injury is still being a bitch so he stayed at home cutting vegetables.

Nevertheless, everyone else (who was important to Guti) came and that included Iker Casillas, Kaka, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso, Raul Albiol, Pepe, Karim Benzema, Marcelo, Arbeloa, Lass Diarra and (gasp) Gago. According to the gossip rags, no one stayed up late to partaaaay because of the morning training session they’re having today. Yeah right – you can bet Gago went to Pacha to look for Pellegrini.

Disculpe but Wedgiellas looks like a washed-out 72 year old David Hasslehoff clone…

Images via Hola

NOTHING excites us more than meeting a fellow chica who plies her trade in the truly madcap world of the football media.

So when Futbolita encountered Kay Murray, the fresh face of Real Madrid TV (which telecasts on Sky TV and Digital in Spain), it was a bit like talking to a long lost hermana. From running halfway across Osasuna’s home ground for an interview with Arjen Robben to being drenched in the rain and jostling in the mixed zone area for her sound bytes (or perhaps not), the 29-year-old broadcast journalist from Middlesbrough has done it all… And yes, it does all seem very, very familiar!

“On a normal day we are usually at the studios, writing, cutting and producing news pieces or reports for our programmes. I record Real Madrid Life, the show that I present, every Thursday. It’s a nice day, as I get pampered by my make-up artists and stylists before I go on set!” Murray enthused.

And although she doesn’t get to share a lunch table with Florentino Perez (“He is a very busy man!”), Murray’s job with Real Madrid TV means that she boards the same plane as the Madrid boys when they travel to away games and also enjoys exclusive sit-down interviews with them.  And in case you were wondering, that list includes Kaka and Ronaldo.

Read the rest of this entry »

After losing 4-0 to Alcorcon midweek, Wedgiellas over here wants to pull a Saltimbanco and pretend that nothing’s happening. Looks like Iker’s bestie, Rafael Nadal, forgot to collect his equipment from the Bernabeu. He arrived at training yesterday in good spirits… juggling tennis balls. Wasn’t that supposed to be Benzema’s job?  Also, now that everyone’s giddy with excitement that the solid, gold walls of Madrid appear to be crumbling, you know that abuelo Pellegrini is getting the evils from Potter Perez at the sandwich bar!

“Everything is debatable. The team is still in the process, and the work of Florentino [Perez] has been commendable, he has bought great players but we have only been together for two months,” Iker reasoned last weekend. Excuses, excuses.

At least Raul The Great One still feels upbeat about the whole thing. “I’ve experienced eliminations from the Copa del Rey before and bad results in other ties, but the great fightbacks in Real Madrid history have come following bad results in important competitions.”

Foto via Globo

by Victor Carratero

So it was Portrait Day at the Bernabeu yesterday and as you can see, Greaseano and Kaka both enjoyed a lovely conversation with Alfredo di Stefano. That look of mischief twinkling in Greaseano’s eyes screams a lack of common ground. Come on, Alfredo will never tattoo “CR” on his wrist or lump GelDouche on his hair for Nereida to comb. Nevertheless, everyone knows that talking to Sr. Alfredo is a tricky process and one must tread carefully. One misstep and you will be gone! Like the rest! If you can’t impress him, do what Guti did in the photo below and casually ask if he’s seeing anyone new.

In other exciting Madrid-related news, Patrick Dempsey decided to pay a visit to the Bernabeu during the Madrid-Tenerife game last weekend. Apparently he is a “big Real Madrid fan” and loves Spain for its climate and gastronomy. Ok, McDreamy…  at least standing next to Wedgeillas makes you look a lot younger! Your show still sucks, sorry.

Cescy is disappointed that he didn’t get to start against Belgium but fortunately, este vato has been catching up with episodes of My Little Pony and brimming with positivity. “I would like to play more, but I consider the decisions of Vicente Del Bosque and I respect them,” he said yesterday.

“It is obvious that everyone wants to contribute more, but when you try to take advantage of those minutes (you’re given), you go into the field with the best attitude.”

Indeed – Cescy also warned that no one can intimidate the Gunners or Arshavin’s madcap hair this season – so you’d better watch out. “Clubs try not to let us play our style of football and some use questionable tactics, but we will not be intimidated by anyone.”

Added Uncle Del Bosque : “It’s a pity that after seven wins in seven encounters we still aren’t qualified, and that’s largely because of the pressure from Bosnia.” Spain will play Estonia later today… and these senors only need 1 point to qualify!

Spanish players and fans from all over are mourning the death of Espanyol captain, Dani Jarque who passed away on Sunday due to heart failure. La Furia Roja’s players gathered at a hotel in Madrid yesterday before their away friendly to Macedonia and many were noticeably reeling from the shock.

“It’s a big pain. First, we suffered the loss of Antonio Puerta and now Jarque,” said Iker Casillas. “It is a pity that this happened to a very young boy who had a wonderful future, leaving his wife in a difficult situation.” Jarque’s wife, Jessica, is carrying his son and is due to give birth in September.

“I remember Jarque at the presentation of Espanyol’s new stadium. He told me that he had become a father and he was very happy,” said Albert Riera. “It’s only in these moments that you (realise) how precious life is.”

“We must stay together and hope that nothing similar happens again,” added Raul Albiol.

Wedgiellas (who picks and chooses the questions he’d like to answer) has declared that Samuel Eto’o is officially the stuff of nightmares for goalkeepers like himself.

“Frankly, I am glad that Eto’o has gone to Inter Milan (because) he was a nightmare for goalkeepers in Spain,” said Madrid’s #1 goalie.

And yet another indication of Greaseano’s new clique of bitches (note that they’re just an extension of Raul’s idolising group), Wedgie has declared that he approves of the Portuguese. “He is very professional – just look at his physical form. He’s been training very well since his first day with us.”

On a sidenote, we think that Iker’s performances have hinged on dismal as of late and La Furia Roja need to call up Victor Valdes ahora!!!

So Casillas (who cannot be called San Iker for now in light of his recent performances) decided to chill out at a Madrid Masters match between fellow countryman Feliciano López and Argentinean Juan Mónaco yesterday. After that Barcelona and Valencia drubbing, homeboy needs to chill. Also present and sitting directly above him was Getafe’s guapo coach Míchel.

Anyway, the weary-looking Casillas has admitted that he’d like to see more Spanish players at the club next season when Harry Potter Perez takes over.

“”I know Cesc (Fabregas) and that is why I would prefer him over Kaka and it is the same with (David) Villa and Cristiano (Ronaldo),” Casillas said.

El capitano did it last month and now, it’s Iker Casillas’ turn! He paid a visit to the boys at the Real Madrid academy yesterday.

It’s always nice to see everyone getting excited and eager to learn from one of their own. Casillas, after all is an impressive product of the Madrid youth team. They don’t send 99.9% of their players away to other clubs after all.

Anyway, Casillas is one of the many at Real Madrid who’re furious with Pepe and his fantastic career move.

“You cannot do things like he did when you are wearing a Real Madrid shirt,” the goalkeeper said after the game. Casillas could be seen telling Pepe ‘you’re crazy‘ before making sure that he walked off the pitch so that the game could continue.

["Hombre! That man over there pulled my hair" - Sergio Ramos. "Mine too!" - Iker]

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Photo captions aside, Del Bosque has told Radio Marca that he may drop David Villa in La Seleccion’s showdown against Turkey tomorrow.

“Villa is s a guy who (is) guaranteed to (score) but the other day we had our doubts. He is an important man for us, but we do not want to harm Valencia. It’s not that we are displeased with anybody, but we have to refresh the team for Wednesday,” he said.

Is it us or is Del Bosque making excuses? Spain were lucky to pull off a 1-0 victory on Saturday and he knows they need a better comeback ahora. Dropping Villa is too easy…

[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_0a12IKZ3A]

As spotted at The Spoiler, here’s a video of Pepe Reina giving Iker Casillas some English lessons ahead of the clash later tonight!