Do you ever look at Wikipedia pages to see what age people accomplished things and think, “Hey, Charles Bukowski didn’t publish his first novel until 50, I’ve got plenty of time,” but then you see that Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein at the age of 18 and you say, “It’s over, bury me out back.”
Is that a thing you do?
Real Madrid fans are unique. As supporters of the most successful club in the history of Europe — if not the world — they look down on all others, especially that pesky club from Catalonia.
The only club that can really challenge Los Blancos’ superiority in Spain is, of course, Barcelona, so the rivalry is understandable intense. No other team brings out the best (or worst) in Real.
In Felipe’s case, it was the worst.
With Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Ousmane Dembélé all sidelined through injury, new signing Antoine Griezmann took center stage in Barcelona’s 5-2 victory over Real Betis at the Camp Nou on Sunday night.
After losing their season opener last Friday against Athletic Bilbao, Barça’s nightmarish start continued when Nabil Fekir opened the scoring for Betis in the 15th minute.
Given a much more normal pathway to his footballing career, Martin Ødegaard is thriving. After establishing himself as one of the best playmakers in the Eredivisie last season while on loan at Vitesse (the former wunderkind scored eight goals and provided 11 assists in 31 appearances), the 20-year-old Norwegian is finally getting his chance in LaLiga, although he’s now on loan at Real Sociedad.
Is Messi injured still? That’s the question on every Barcelona fan’s mind as the Blaugrana prepare for their second LaLiga match of the 2019-20 campaign.
Sadly, it appears their talisman, Lionel Messi, is still out injured.
For the second straight week, Messi was not included in Ernesto Valverde’s LaLiga squad. In his place is 16-year-old phenom Ansu Fati.
After a year-and-a-half together at the Camp Nou, it’s likely that Ousmane Dembélé and Philippe Coutinho have ended their time together as teammates on the pitch.
Real Madrid star Eden Hazard has responded to fan allegations of some minor weight gain this offseason with a video. The Belgian winger was getting a haircut with no shirt on (like a sociopath) and decided to film a quick short about his abs.
Hazard was sitting, so obviously we did not get the most flattering ab angle we could have received.
Hazard getting a haircut and showing off his six pack pic.twitter.com/6SBm7fdxpq
Real Madrid led, but only just. Karim Benzema had given Los Blancos an early lead but Luka Modric picked up his first straight red card in more than 300 matches with Real. Then came an insane Toni Kroos goal vs Celta Vigo, ensuring all three points for the Merengues on Saturday.
After Benzema’s goal in the 12th minute you’d be forgiven for thinking Real Madrid would cruise to an opening-day victory. But Modric’s 56th-minute red card complicated things a bit.
I could describe for you the 89th-minute Aritz Aduriz goal vs Barcelona, or I could let the stellar Ray Hudson’s words speak for themselves as he gushed over the “magisterial” strike.
“A goal that will give you physical arousal.”
“As cool as James Bond in a white tuxedo.”
“A goal that would make Ebenezer Scrooge smile.”
“Perfection from Aduriz.”
In January of 2018, Philippe Coutinho became the second-richest transfer in soccer history when he moved from Liverpool to Barcelona. Essentially a replacement for Neymar, who had months earlier become the richest transfer ever, Coutinho never really quite fit in, as the impending Coutinho Bayern loan deal illustrates.