. Holy Icons of Madridism

Hello again,

I hope not to bored you with last mail. In this one I will tell you about HIM. Who…?, It´s not a person, they´re the Holy Icons of Madridism.

 

Santiago Bernabéu, The President.

Real Madrid had been only one president in all his history, the rest, even the founders, were only subtitutes.

He was a team player in his youth, but if i´ts world known is beacause he has been the best president of the history. He was not born in Madrid, the image that came to our minds of Don Santiago is a fat old man, in a non expensive clothing, but always with a big cigar in his hand, like a mix of Churchill and Vito Corleone, but not only in his look.

Like Sir Winston he knew how to galvanize all madridism, and like Don Vito, he became the most powerful president of the biggest club in Europe in a moment that Spain was isolated from the rest of european nations because of politics. In fact, the actual “Champions League” was an invention of Don Santiago.

He managed to build the best stadium of Europe in the hardest after-war times, he reached the best player in history, he perform the world´s best team ever, and he was one of the few persons that could argue with the government in a hard dictator era.

 

Alfredo Di Stéfano, La Saeta (The arrow).

The best player in history, Argentinian says that god is argentinian, and it´s true… but his name is not Diego.

There were a strong fight between Real Madrid and barza to get this player, in the end, Don Santiago reach the best striker in the world. It was the beginning of a golden era of success for Real Madrid. There they are, five consecutive Champions League, the first five ones. At the sixth, FIFA played an scandalous robbery for not to let the team win again… maybe it was boring for the rest of Europe to see Real Madrid win every year.

Nowadays, Don Alfredo is the Honorific President of the club, more or less like a “grouser grandfather” for the players. It is known that Don Alfredo has a little antipathetic character, and he might be not very happy with some of the luxury and glamour that surrounds the first team, he used to say “Football got fucked-up the day that first hairdryer entered in the team dressing-room”.

 

Juan Gómez, “Juanito” (The Legend)

He was not the more talented player of the history, in spite of being a fantastic player, but he had more guts than can be humanly possible. Big heart, big bollocks, great player and heroic character.

Unfortunately, he died in a car crash when he returned home after seen a game in the Bernabéu, it was one of the biggest shocks ever for the whole madridism.

He was not very tall, but his greatness was in his soul. One of the best tiffo phrases of history, was made by UltrasSur honoring him, one “call of atention” to a team who has lost his strenght in that days: “WE WANT ELEVEN JUANITOS”.