- The Santiago Bernabeu stadium is currently under construction, and Real Madrid will end its season in the Di Stéfano stadium.
- The Real youth stadium was inaugurated by the Stade de Reims in 2006.
- Between "Disneyland" visit and gala match against Zizou and co, former Rémois return to this rather special episode.
This weekend at the hour of the resumption of the Liga, the only spectacle that you will observe on the lawn of the Santiago Bernabeu - or rather what is left of it - is a ballet of backhoes orchestrated by masked workers. Due to modernization works, Real Madrid is asked to end its Liga season in the Alfredo di Stéfano stadium, "the precinct of Castilla where Youth League games are played", described in 20 Minutes Olivier Létang, who has known the place since his sports studies in Spain, where he also got to know Butragueño, former star and current top Merengue executive.
“Emilio is high class. »A statement that the former sports director of PSG and president of Stade Rennes takes as much from his multiple meetings with the man as from an episode dating from his early career as a manager, in 2006 in Reims. A symbolic date for the club which was awarded the trophy for the Cup of Champion Clubs that year on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of their European epic, each time deprived of a happy ending by Real.
Létang recalls: “There was a very warm atmosphere, and it was amazing to see how players of that time like Paco Gento and Michel Hidalgo still had so many anecdotes to tell about these matches. This is where Butragueño tells me "we are going to organize the inauguration of the new city of football and the Di Stéfano stadium in Madrid, it would be great to do it with the Stade de Reims". And this is how, on May 9, 2006, the players from Reims found themselves almost by chance to baptize a pitch to the glory of the greatest Merengue player against the Galactics of Florentino Pérez.
"It was the half-time race to get the jerseys"
The story is beautiful and it is all the more so since Reims is not yet what it has roughly become today, namely a good Ligue 1 team (6th this year). In 2005-2006, the team completed its 28th consecutive season outside the elite at a modest 14th place in Ligue 2, and most of its players have never known the upper floor. We let you imagine the degree of wonderment of the group during the visit of the installations: the guardian Laurent Weber grapeshot of photos, it is necessary to draw a maximum of memories from it, it is Disneyland.
“We tried not to be overly aficionados out of respect, remembers Olivier Létang, but it's true that for some it was a bit of a fair in the good sense of the word. For our players, it was incredible to experience that. "Even captain Christophe Delmotte is amazed at the top of his status as triple champion of France with OL:" Di Stefano was there, the training center is incredible, the pool, the grounds, and they had a staff already very stocked for the period. "
On the ground, it's a little less fun. Real Madrid has the elegance to line up the big team in the first half: Casillas, Roberto Carlos, David Beckham and Zizou, marked in the pants by Delmotte, photo in support. "He probably made quality gestures but I have no more memory than that. When we are focused on the match, we are not on a single player. Except at half-time, which is transformed in the eyes of the Reims groupies into a commando mission to recover Zidane's jersey. The ex-captain laughs again:
“It was the half-time race to get the jerseys, and with my past, my experience, I had not wanted to have this approach, I made my proud and I think that now I regret. Zizou was immediately climbed. "
"A la Zidane" by Julien Féret and memories of a career
At halftime, and since it is necessary to talk about the pitch, Real Madrid already leads 3-1 (final score 6-1). Cassano had allowed the locals to break an authoritarian double after an equalization full of audacity of Julien Féret, that Madrid commentators, surprised to see such a technical quality in an L2 player, will qualify as "Zidane goal "
⏮ @IkerCasillas, Beckham, Zidane, Ronaldo ...
14 years ago, #SDR rubbed shoulders with the Galactics of @realmadrid as part of the inauguration of the Di Stefano stadium. Here is the goal of 1-1 (we forgot the final score and then it was anecdotal huh 😬😅)
May 9, 2006 ➡️ May 9, 2020 pic.twitter.com/jnCVYN47bi
Otherwise more aesthetic than the opening of the already symbolically angry score of the first goal scorer in the history of Di Stéfano stadium, Sergio Ramos, silky hair and baby skin instead of the beard. "It was still a very relaxed match," concluded Létang. I had the opportunity to talk about it to David Beckham when we met at PSG. He had a funny memory of that day. "For Christophe Delmotte, it was rather" a highlight in a career ". Question of perspective.
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