FC Barcelona won its second straight Spanish league title and 18th overall on Wednesday, claiming the crown when final challenger Valencia was beaten by Mallorca 2-1. Barcelona players began celebrating at halftime of their game at Celta Vigo and went on to toast their success with a 1-0 win courtesy of a 55th-minute goal by Samuel Eto’o.
Real Madrid star and France legend Zinedine Zidane on Wednesday explained his decision to retire after the World Cup finals in Germany and not play on with his club for another year. ”I didn’t make this decision overnight. It’s one I’ve mulled over for a long time,” Zidane told a news conference in Madrid, confirming what he had told French television on Tuesday.
The first galactico of the Florentino Perez era at Real Madrid, Portugal star Luis Figo, compared the last few years at the Spanish club to a circus in an interview with Spanish newspaper Marca on Wednesday. ”If the most important thing in your project is to make a circus then you have a lot less chance of achieving sporting success.
Real Madrid have included England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson and Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho on a seven-man shortlist from which they hope to find a replacement for Juan Ramon Lopez Caro. Four English-based managers and three Italians appear on the shortlist, announced by Real Madrid president Fernando Martin on Monday.
A permanent ceasefire by separatist group ETA came into effect on Friday as a poll found the vast majority of Spaniards want their government to engage in talks with the armed Basque movement. The Opina poll released by the private Cadena Ser radio station said around 68% consider the ceasefire ”good news for Spanish society”.
Real Madrid’s three-time World Player of the Year Ronaldo couldn’t hide his relief after finally finding the net following 36 barren days in which the Spanish giants have gone into a downward spiral. Ronaldo’s injury-time goal salvaged a point in Wednesday’s 1-1 draw at Real Zaragoza, the team which humiliated Real 6-1 in the Spanish Cup last month.
The armed Basque separatist organisation ETA announced on Wednesday it is declaring a permanent ceasefire, a condition set by Spain’s government for the opening of talks with the group. Spanish First Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said the government hopes the ceasefire means the ”beginning of the end” of violence.
Spanish surgeons using cranes and ropes removed a 60kg mass of fat and liquid from the abdomen of a middle-aged woman in the procedure known as a tummy tuck. Francisco Javier Gabilondo, chief of plastic surgery at Hospital Cruces near the Basque city of Bilbao, said on Friday the operation was ”more spectacular than it was difficult”.
Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero led homage to the victims of the March 11 2004 Madrid train bombings in a quiet ceremony held on Saturday. As in 2005, the ceremony was held in a garden comprising 191 olive and cypress trees, planted to commemorate the victims of the attack exactly two years ago.
Real Madrid’s elimination from the Champions League by Arsenal may signal a revolution at the ailing powerhouse. Wednesday’s 0-0 draw at Highbury ousted Madrid before the quarterfinals 1-0 on aggregate, and looks likely to sentence the team to a third straight season without a major trophy.
Forty-five migrants from sub-Saharan Africa have drowned in two separate incidents while trying to reach Spain, the Spanish Red Cross said on Tuesday. Spokesperson Jaime Bara said 23 people had drowned when a small boat carrying 43 migrants collided with a rescue boat and broke in two off the coast of western Sahara.
Real Madrid’s new chairperson Fernando Martin said he believed a smoother road lay ahead for the club following what he termed a ”very important win” on Saturday over city rivals Atletico Madridt. ”It was a very important win,” property developer Martin told reporters after the 2-1 success gave him a winning start five days after taking over from friend Florentino Perez.
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/ 28 February 2006
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has resigned, the Spanish first-division club confirmed on Monday. ”Real Madrid needs change and this is the right moment for me to leave the presidency,” Perez said at a press conference. ”I am convinced this is the boost the club needs.”
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/ 20 February 2006
England skipper David Beckham said here on Sunday he was about to start talks about new contract with Real Madrid. ”I haven’t talked to the president [Florentino Perez] but I hope to in about two weeks,” said the world’s richest football player at a press conference.
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/ 2 February 2006
Mittal Steel chief executive Lakshmi Mittal said on Thursday that opposition to his hostile takeover bid for European steelmaker Arcelor could not weaken the "industrial logic" of his plan which would protect European jobs. The bid by Mittal would create by far the biggest steel group in the world, accounting for 10% share of global steel production.
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/ 30 January 2006
Spanish police have detained about 200 African undocumented immigrants in the biggest such swoop this year, press reports said on Monday. The north and sub-Saharan Africans were captured off Almeria and Granada on the southern coast as well as the Canary Islands after arriving on five boats over the week-end.
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/ 25 December 2005
Real Madrid great Alfredo di Stefano is in hospital after suffering a heart attack, the Spanish first division club said on Saturday. Di Stefano suffered the heart attack in the early hours of Saturday morning before being moved to a hospital at Sagunto near Valencia.
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/ 21 December 2005
Samuel Eto’o scored his 16th and 17th goals of the season and FC Barcelona beat Celta Vigo 2-0 on Tuesday to take a five-point lead in the Spanish League standings. Eto’o finished third behind teammate Ronaldinho in voting for Fifa’s World Player of the Year award on Monday.
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/ 19 December 2005
Juan Roman Riquelme and Diego Forlan scored a goal each on Sunday, and Villarreal rallied to beat Getafe 2-1 and move into third place in the Spanish league. Villarreal trailed at El Madrigal stadium when striker Ivan ”Riki” Sanchez-Rico scored in the 20th minute with an overhead kick, but Riquelme levelled in the 45th with a curling free kick that crossed the line via the crossbar.
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/ 16 December 2005
Real Madrid have their first match back in their Santiago Bernabeu stadium since Juan Ramon Lopez Caro took over as the Spanish giants’ latest coach two weeks ago when Osasuna visit on Sunday. Real are third with 28 points from 15 games but lie six points behind the leading pair.
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/ 6 December 2005
Real Madrid have descended into utter chaos and confusion. The ”Greatest Club in the World”, as they like to be called, are quickly become the greatest laughing stock of Planet Football. On Saturday night, the ”Galacticos” struggled at home to beat minnows Getafe 1-0, a result that took them up to fourth in the Spanish Liga.
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/ 5 December 2005
Juan Manuel Pena scored an own-goal in the first half and deflected Deco’s strike after the interval on Sunday to help FC Barcelona beat Villarreal 2-0 in the Spanish league. The win at Villarreal was Barcelona’s seventh straight in the league and ninth overall.
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/ 30 November 2005
More than 200Â 000 people were left without power on Tuesday on Spain’s Canary Islands after Tropical Storm Delta wreaked havoc on the popular winter tourist destination, killing at least seven people and causing serious damage. Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Epsilon is centred about 1Â 280km east of Bermuda.
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/ 29 November 2005
A 63-year-old man died and more than 200Â 000 people were left without power in several cities as Tropical Storm Delta unleashed torrential rain and strong winds on the Canary Islands, authorities said on Tuesday. The rains and winds also affected hundreds of people who were left stranded at the islands’ main airports.
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/ 11 November 2005
Palaeontologists excavating a dump outside Barcelona have found a skull dating back 14-million years that could belong to a common ancestor of apes and humans. The nearly intact skull, which has a flat face, jaw and teeth, may belong to a previously unknown species of great ape, said Salvador Moya, the chief palaeontologist on the dig.
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/ 8 November 2005
David Beckham will hope to bend the ball even further at next year’s World Cup finals in his new soccer boots. The Real Madrid and England midfielder took turns with other top players taking free kicks and playing soccer tennis at an Adidas boot launch. They also shot a ball against a wall to measure how fast it was moving.
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/ 2 November 2005
The luckier ones sleep in crowded apartments or shelters and do construction work, dodging inspectors or using a friend’s papers. The less fortunate live in parks and hand out fliers, toiling for a pittance. They are Africans in limbo, scraping by in a country that does not want them but cannot expel them.
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/ 25 October 2005
Real Madrid appealed on Tuesday against the red card issued to David Beckham for applauding after he had been booked. Referee Arturo Dauden Ibanez wrote in his report after Madrid lost 2-1 against Valencia that ”Beckham was behaving in a mocking way after being reprimanded”.
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/ 24 October 2005
The body of the wife of Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo was set to leave Spain on Monday afternoon for Abuja, a day after she died in the southern resort of Marbella, Nigerian officials said. Stella Obasanjo died on Sunday and an autopsy was carried out, but the sources were unable to comment on the findings.
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/ 24 October 2005
Spanish top seed Rafael Nadal battled back from two sets down to beat Croatia’s Ivan Ljubicic 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (7/3) at the â,¬2,1-million Madrid Masters on Sunday. The dramatic match took nearly four hours, with the French Open champion notching up his 11th title of the season.
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/ 24 October 2005
England skipper David Beckham was sent off as Real Madrid crashed to a 2-1 defeat to Valencia on Sunday leaving city neighbours Getafe to take top spot in the Spanish championship. Getafe, in only their second season of top flight football, beat Real Zaragoza 5-2 while Real’s four-game winning streak came to an end with their home defeat.
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/ 22 October 2005
Male models will be used as ballboys at the 2006 WTA Tour Championships, officials announced in Madrid on Friday. With female models into their second year of similar duties at this week’s men’s ATP Madrid Masters, the Spanish organisers believe they are on to a good thing.