ONE. I love the new Karim Benzema!  I don’t think he would have done this last year, or even several months ago.  Courtesy of “El Día Después,” we got to see the new side of Karim during the Atleti game.  While sitting on the bench, he flicked Aitor Karanka on the top of his head, and then pretended it wasn’t him.  But since he was the only obvious candidate, Aitor “punished” him with a handshake and a pat on the hand.

TWO. Cristiano Ronaldo finished filming his hair gel commercial at 19h after eight hours of filming yesterday, where he got to sort of drive around a Maserati.  Are they seeing how well the gel holds up in windy conditions?  Between takes, Cristiano applied ice to his left thigh.

He left to meet up with his national team in Portugal after that, dressed in head to toe Gucci, much like Sergio when he headed to Las Rozas.

THREE. The team will return to training today, behind closed doors, after enjoying three days off.  However, there will only be 10 or so players available to Mou, as the rest are on international duty.

FOUR. Ten of our canteranos have made the list of 77 finalists for the Fútbol Draft awards (for players aged 16 to 20).  The list was announced on Monday by a former canterano, Juanín Mata, and are broken down by position.  Our little stars are: Dani Carvajal (Castilla); Diego Caballo (Juvenil B); Nacho Fernández (Castilla); Álex Fernández (Castilla); Fran Pastor (Juvenil B); Pablo Sarabia (Castilla); Juan Carlos Pérez (Castilla); Jesé Rodríguez (Juvenil A); Sergio Canales (first team); and MFC Álvaro Borja Morata Martín (Castilla).

FIVE. Speaking of canteranos, MFC is on twitter, and yesterday he tweeted this cute little photo (left) of him and teammate “the great” Denis Cheryshev, who’s also on twitter here.  I like that Denis’ profile photo is a picture of him and José Mourinho.  And the photo on the right with Jorge Casado is from a couple of days ago – loving MFC’s hair!  He’s so adorable!

Other canteranos on twitter: Fran Sol, Derik Osede, Josep Señé.

Update – and Sergio Canales has joined as well!

SIX. Interesting note: if the strike that the LFP is proposing for the next jornada (April 2-3) happens, there will be a pasillo at the Bernabéu during the clásico for the Copa del Rey winner.  Right now, the game is tentatively scheduled for April 16.  However, if the Liga goes on strike, all the jornadas will be pushed back and the clásico will be played on the following weekend, April 23.  Protocol dictates that the rival team will form a pasillo for the champion.

SEVEN. Manu Adebayor is apparently returning to Togo’s national team, after more than a year, as he’s been included on Togo’s list for the African Cup of Nations qualifier against Malawi on Wednesday.  He retired from international football following the shootout during the 2010 African Cup.  Update: Manu said that he had declined the invitation for this game.

EIGHT. A short interview with Sergio C., where he says things like Mou is a very involved coach, playing in the Bernabéu is incredible, Benzema is a wonderful footballer, Ozi is a reference in the offense and that he’s learning a lot.  These questions are getting boring… I’m sure I could come up with much better questions that would elicit very interesting answers.

NINE. Roberto Carlos took advantage of the international break to return to Madrid and of course eat at Asador Donostiarra.  He was accompanied by his wife Mariana and daughter Manuela, who’s only about one year old (I’ve given up keeping track of how many kids he has).  Both AS and Marca took the opportunity to interview him.

With AS, Roberto said that he had decided to play for Anzhi because they offered to allow him to play and then coach, and that he’s learning Russian (so far he can only say ‘good morning’ and ‘thank you’).  He also said that he doesn’t want any talk of tributes while he’s still an active player, so I guess we’ll only be seeing the one for Ronie in the meantime.  Roberto also revealed that his favorite coaches are “Mourinho and Capello,” and when questioned where VDB stands, he said, “on another list.  I miss him.  He was a professor, he taught me a lot.  He deserves all the awards he’s receiving.”

With Marca, he said, with regards to the language difficulties, “I smile and they understand me.  That never fails.  I can say some words, but it’s difficult.  I have a translator that helps me understand my teammates.  There are three Brazilians on the team and that helps things.  It’s always been easy for me to integrate into new cultures.”  And we also find out that he always returns to Madrid whenever he can, because he still has a house here and good friends (including Iker Casillas), and because he feels a bit Spanish.  Plus, he keeps Real Madrid in his heart.

TEN. And this week’s Crackòvia.  No time to translate, but I love that calendar Sergio made for Mourinho for his saint’s day because “he’s always complaining about it.”  The calendar has made up things like “Madiembre” (a combination of “Madrid” and “Septiembre” or “Diciembre” (September or December)) or Agusto (meaning pleasure (“a gusto”), for “Agosto” (August)), three Julys, a February with 34 days…

Also worth a watch is this cute and touching little video of all the Crackòvia characters wishing Eric Abidal well.