GOAL!!!!

Location: Madrid

















Perhaps it's fitting that my first real post in Madrid is about Fútbol - also known as Soccer in the states. But here it's not just a sport, it's a way of life. Similar to the book and movie "Friday Night Lights" which describes a small Texas town where high school football is everything, Spain lives and breathes through it's Fútbol teams. And although Spain has many leagues and teams, the most famous club is "Real Madrid".

Founded in 1902, this club has won a record 9 European Cup, 17 Copa del Rey and 31 La Liga titles. I don't have any idea what those second two even mean but they sound impressive. That's probably why FIFA voted them as the most successful football team of the 20th century. This team is so good that although David Beckham recently played here for several years, the locals tend to agree he didn't have much to contribute. Below is the teams logo, which I've often seen on tee-shirts, bumper stickers, etc walking around Madrid.

Conveniently, the team plays out of Santiago Bernabéu Stadium located in downtown Madrid. I was fortunate to recently catch a tour of the stadium, which I found fascinating.

This is what the outside looks like.
Although I didn't take this next one, this is the view at a full capacity (80,000 people) night...This place has some trophy rooms the likes of which I've never seen or heard about. This particular shot was a very "select" room, containing rows and rows of trophies which signified only "the most paramount" of victories throughout the years. I really had the feeling that a die-hard fan would know the story behind every single trophy.
Continuing on, there are more huge rooms with cases like these.
And then there are even more rooms with weird ones shaped like objects. Many were obvious ones like golden soccer cleats and soccer balls, but some were a bit more interesting like the one below.
To all those reading this, I have no clue as to why anyone would be bestowed a sports trophy which looks like a house, but feel free to enlighten me.

And this particular beauty they had apparently won only 6 days before...
And of course here's one within the stadium. We also got to walk down next to the field (with strict instructions not to touch the grass). I haven't been in too many other stadiums, but this one felt like it had particularly steep seating.
Hopefully I get to take another one during a game sometime!

Click here to see additional pictures.