A New España

Spain is my life. España es mi vida. Which ever way you want to put a spin on it, or whatever language you say it in, it doesn’t take away from the fact that it describes me perfectly.

I’m Anthony, a Spaniard by blood and birth, now living in Canada. When I saw the lack of activity here on the Spanish World Cup Blog I was quite disappointed to say the least. Just because there’s been no international matches for some time now, doesn’t mean nothing is going on in the wonderful world of La Furia Roja. I had to take this over, I need the world to (especially after becoming European Champions) know Spain, how amazing our team is, and why we deserve more than any other team to be seeded number one in the world.

I also write for the Sevilla Offside and started doing so because I wanted everyone to know about my beloved team, and over the past couple months things have started to pick up and more people are reading about Sevilla. It’s still a work in progress of course, we don’t have the stature of the Real’s and Barca’s of the world but we won 5 trophies in 15 months before, something Barça or Real can’t say they’ve ever accomplished. It seems that I’m doing a good job with my club so I thought I’d try doing it with my country.

So let’s start with the news that yesterday Cristiano Ronaldo beat out our two beloved European, Cup-Winning Spaniards Xavi and Fernando Torres which was no shock really. Not because I don’t think Xavi and Torres are worse than Mr. Ronaldo but favouritism is a huge part of our lives these days ladies and gentlemen, what can you do? It’s funny because Xavi was player of the tournament for the Euros and I think that should play a huge role in the decision making process considering Cristiano couldn’t do a thing for Portugal. And Torres, well what can I say about this guy, most ever goals by a foreigner in his first year in the Premier League, pretty amazing feat if I do say so myself. Not only did he defeat these two champions but this is what really surprised me. He edged out both Messi and Kaká for this award. I don’t like to get involved in these things (okay, well, maybe I do, just a bit) but Messi is clearly the best player in the world. In fact, I think all those four other men up on stage with cry baby Ronaldo are much better players than him and if I was assembling my dream team I would definitely pick one of the other four.

I guess FIFA felt bad for Cristiano’s little car crash earlier this week so they gave it to him, none the less, not deserved in my opinion.

Onto better news here as the RFEF (Real Federacion Española de Futbol, or the Spanish FA) announced that the upcoming friendly against England will be played in none other than El Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in my hometown of Sevilla. Of course when I heard this I was beyond ecstatic and it’s a shame I live about a 9 hour flight away or I could have walked around the corner from my house to go watch the match. The match was actually originally supposed to be played in Madrid either in the Santiago Bernabéu or Vicente Calderón but due to previous reports of racist chants being chanted by Spanish fans at several black English players the RFEF was forced to change the venue in fear that if they didn’t the match would not take place. In my opinion this is good, don’t really have a reason for it other than it’s in Sevilla and we haven’t hosted an important international match since that of the 1982 World Cup Semifinal game between Germany and France although we did host the 1886 European Cup Final (Now known as the Champions Leauge) in which Steaua Bucharest handed Barça a 2-0 defeat.

It truly is good to get international football back in Sevilla and it’s also a perfect time for something else. Yup, that’s right, Mr. Del Bosque himself has called up Jesús Navas into the Spanish men’s team for the upcoming game against England. Jesús has represented Spain in u-17, u-19, and u-21 competitions but has had difficulty playing matches outside of Spain due to his serious homesickness’. Del Bosque also said that Diego Capel will most likely be called up into the squad to face the Three Lions and when I hear more about that I’ll be sure to let everyone know. The match will take place on February 11th and my mouth is watering at possibly having the two future wingers of the Spanish national team on my beloved Sevilla, it’s a win/win here for me really.

Some more good news here as French Newspaper L’Equipe named Casillas, Xavi, and Fernando Torres to their “Best starting XI of 2008″, once again showing that we definitely have some of the best players in the world. Somehow David Villa got beat out of his place alongside Fernando Torres in the French Newspaper to Zlatan Ibrahimovic… Don’t ask me how… The IFFHS (International Federation of Football History & Statistics) Named Iker Casillas the best Goalkeeper of the year and Xavi the best playmaker of the year, adding to our honours in Spain.

Earlier in the month the RFEF made a formal presentation to confirm their candidacy to host the 2018 World Cup Finals jointly with Portugal. I think it’s about time a major tournament was played in Spain and as winners of the European Championships this summer I think we more than deserve it. It’s a more than safe country, with the perfect lifestyle, amazing hotels, attractions, the most beautiful cities in the world, and even if we’re sharing it with the dirty corner to the West, I’m 100% sure the final will be played in Spain. There were many other countries that submitted a bid such as Belgium/Holland, Australia, and England, all of which are no where near as attractive as my beloved España.

To end this all off on a good note I’ll put it out there that Pelé (yes, the best player EVER) has tipped us to win the World Cup 2010 in South Africa saying that “They are the best team in the world, no one can deny that”.

Until next time..
¡¡Qué Viva España!!