<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[following Real Madrid...]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://unamadridista.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[unamadridista]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://unamadridista.wordpress.com/author/unamadridista/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[hands off + other&nbsp;news]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><img class="alignleft" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/mou.jpg" alt="" width="289" height="427" />Mou is a hot commodity, Cris updates his hair, Álvaro makes plans and Iker is honored.</p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">One.</span> </strong>Has anyone seen the movie <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0089730/">&#8220;Once Bitten&#8221;</a> from the 1980s?  Well anyway, there&#8217;s a song in there where the lyrics go something like &#8220;hands off, he belongs to me, hands off, I&#8217;m telling you one last time&#8230;&#8221;</p>
<p>And that&#8217;s what I feel like singing to the Portuguese Football Federation in relation to their attempts to steal away José Mourinho.  Doesn&#8217;t it seem like a lack of respect for Real Madrid for the Federation to do this?  They already pissed me off <a href="https://unamadridista.wordpress.com/2009/11/10/i-still-love-del-bosque/">last year</a> and as you know, I wasn&#8217;t the biggest fan of <a href="https://unamadridista.wordpress.com/2010/06/29/lets-go-spain/">Carlos Queiroz</a> either.  It&#8217;s no wonder they&#8217;re not doing well.  And with the type of micromanagement that TSO is so fond of, I also don&#8217;t believe he&#8217;d have enough time to manage two teams.  As any of the Real Madrid coaches who preceded him can tell him, managing Real Madrid is a full time job and a lot more.</p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Two.</span> </strong>After all that fuss about Cris&#8217; hair, things went back to normal (if anything related to Cristiano Ronaldo can ever be classified as normal) during the training session yesterday, when Cris showed up with slicked down hair.  I like this look.</p>
<p><!--more--></p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-1601.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="359" /></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Three.</span> </strong>Meanwhile Álvaro Arbeloa is a fan of online dating!  Well, sort of.  He made a date with Fernando Verdasco over twitter yesterday, and who can blame him?  For those of you who don&#8217;t know, <a href="http://i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/fernandoverdasco.jpg">this</a> is Fernando Verdasco.  Bonus video <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eMPvc_4Vm1Y">here</a>.  Oh, and he&#8217;s an excellent tennis player as well (and gets extra points for being a madridista!)</p>
<p><strong>Left:</strong> Well let&#8217;s see if we can get together a day before I go on the Asian tour!  A lunch or something, no?</p>
<p><strong>Right:</strong> I accept the invitation.</p>
<p>Hopefully Álvaro will later reveal the location of the meal via foursquare so we can stalk, no?</p>
<p><a href="https://twitter.com/FerVerdasco83/status/24662191602"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-16twitterarbeloa01.jpg" alt="" width="276" height="131" /></a><a href="https://twitter.com/aarbeloa17/status/24672432945"><img class="alignnone" src="https://i1.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-16twitterarbeloa02.jpg" alt="" width="273" height="93" /></a></p>
<p><strong><span style="color:#0000ff;">Four. </span> </strong>And Iker was named as a favorite son of his birthplace and hometown, Móstoles (he had previously been honored with the city&#8217;s gold medal and the city award).  Iker was welcomed by Móstoles mayor Esteban Parro, who said, &#8220;we honor his merits because we love him, because he&#8217;s the person that all the kids in Móstoles aspire to be and because he&#8217;s the same person he was 10 years ago and brings Móstoles along with him wherever he goes.&#8221;  In his speech, Iker thanked the mayor and the people of Móstoles: &#8220;if the city of Móstoles was already linked to me, now it is much more so.  I give it my all so that you will be proud of me, like I am of this city.&#8221;</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-16mostoles02.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="359" /></p>
<p>In declarations to the press, Iker said, &#8220;if 25 or 26 years ago you had asked me when I was three or four years old whether one day I would be a favorite son of Móstoles, I probably would not have known what that was, and I wouldn&#8217;t have believed it either.&#8221;  When asked whether he would like a street in the city to be named after him (how about his mother?), he said, &#8220;I would love that, but ask the mayor.&#8221;  The mayor said, &#8220;I already told him that I will change the rule because the current one only allows names to be named after persons who have already passed away.&#8221;</p>
<p>After the ceremony, the majority of the people headed to a nearby field to watch Iker&#8217;s (cute) brother Unai and his team Móstoles take on Puertollano.  Iker watched the game from the box of honor.</p>
<p>Iker looked good yesterday, didn&#8217;t he?  But did you know that the outfit is a more or less combination of what Iker, Xabi and Álvaro were wearing <a href="https://unamadridista.wordpress.com/2009/10/17/what-a-trio/">here</a>?  Iker chipped in the blazer, Álvaro the white shirt and Xabi the jeans.  That equals <em>perfection</em>.</p>
<p><img class="alignnone" src="https://i2.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/2010-09-16mostoles01.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="359" /></p>
]]></html><thumbnail_url><![CDATA[https://i0.wp.com/i762.photobucket.com/albums/xx268/unamadridista/unamadridista2/mou.jpg?fit=440%2C330]]></thumbnail_url><thumbnail_width><![CDATA[223]]></thumbnail_width><thumbnail_height><![CDATA[330]]></thumbnail_height></oembed>