Footballbits and pieces

Of the Spanish U-21 squad that attracted much attention for their European Championship victory this summer, Barcelona’s Thiago Alcântara was perhaps the player singled out for most praise. Born in Italy to Brazilian World Cup-winner Mazinho, Thiago elected to represent Spain after spending much of his youth at Barcelona’s famed cantera. His assured displays in [...]

A 53 Goal Season: An amazing feat but would it have been possible in any other League or if he was playing for any other team? During Real Madrid‘s 8-1 domination of Almeria on Saturday, Cristiano Ronaldo broke the record set for most goals in a Primera Division season set by Madrid player Hugo Sanchez [...]

This is supposedly a first look at Barcelona’s next away shirt (source: El Mundo Deportivo), made by Nike and complete with Qatar Foundation sponsor’s logo on the chest. You might think it’s for goalkeeper Victor Valdes, who has been the man in the black in recent seasons, but no, it’s for the outfield players: Messi, [...]

On 4 January 1909, representatives of several clubs met in Madrid to form the Spanish football federation. The meeting was held at the offices of Real Madrid, with club president Adolfo Meléndez serving as the federation’s first secretary. Originally named the Federación Española de Clubs de Football, the new organization followed the model of England’s [...]

Carles Puyol has been the bigger man by making light of the incident when he was shoved in the face to the the ground by Spain teammate Sergio Ramos during the Monday night El Clasico. Sergio Ramos was shown a straight red card after lunging into Lionel Messi in the 90th minutes of Real Madrid’s [...]