I woke up early to tell you that yesterday we experienced a very special night in London because Spanish football shone under the spotlight at the most glamorous gala in the world of sport and took home most of the awards.
The main one for Alexia Putellas. The captain of the national team collected her third award and is elevated as a legendary footballer, with an unrepeatable track record and that image that she projects beyond the playing fields, as an absolute dominator of the scene and the environment.
Alexia was our best representative, but we also celebrated the awards to Luis de la Fuente, Lamine Yamal, Vicky López, Pere Romeu, Cata Coll and Unai Simón. The speech of the national team and Athletic Club goalkeeper was impeccable: serene, emotional. The healthy relationship that he has always cultivated with his rivals in goal, such as David Raya and Joan García or Remiro before, is very sincere.
And you will see on most of the covers Harry Kane, the forward for Bayern and the English team, who won the men’s Ballon d’Or. In a few days we will know if he won it by many or few votes difference with Mbappé, who was second.
It saddens and frustrates me at the same time that, after having won the World Cup this summer, it was not for a Spaniard. Individual talent was not rewarded after a collective success, as happened in 2010 in South Africa and the rudeness has been repeated 16 years later.
There are three of ours in the top ten: Lamine, Rodri and Fabián. And I don’t want to snub Kane, but it seems more like a lifetime achievement award than a season award. Mind you, it’s not bad. More than 70 goals, semi-finalist of the World Cup and the Champions League, because the German league does not score points, having won 13 of the last 14 with Bayern. The award for Lamine or Mbappé would have generated controversy between defenders and detractors and Harry Kane is the easy way out so that no one protests.
We were once again penalized by the dispersion of votes in a choir selection like De la Fuente’s, but since no one appealed to the useful vote…
