• Real Madrid The return to the Bernabéu against the clock: grass in trucks from Plasencia and award to the workers

"Over here! Over here!"

A security guard, one of hundreds, was pointing to the entrance to the stadium.

"Around here" there was a corridor between the canvases that separate the area from the works, but "around here" they returned to football in Chamartín.

A joy for Real Madrid, for its fans and for the streets surrounding the white coliseum.

Football life returned, 560 days later, to the Santiago Bernabéu.

After working against the clock during these last two weeks, cleaning the stands, removing material from the entrances and laying the grass at dawn, some of those workers were able to go to the Bernabéu as guests of the club. An award for outstanding dedication. From their seats, they would see the giant tarps that covered some of the areas closest to the lawn, leaving only a few rows of the north end and the sides free.

They would see the stands as full as Madrid itself has allowed, with just over 20,000 spectators, 30% of the capacity that was not difficult to locate in their seats thanks to the significant deployment of employees in the street, entrances and stands. Looking up at the sky, fans would see the cranes and metal structure on part of the new roof. This will cover all locations, while the retractable will move from north to south as needed. Meanwhile, yes, and until the construction of the roof is completed, fans will be at the mercy of the hypothetical rain. "It is rare and at the same time fascinating to see the whole structure", answers Vicente, a fan of Fondo Norte.

The arrival of the night accelerated sensations and the victory of the basketball team in the Super Cup warmed up the fans, who shouted "Courtois!" for the first time in a year and a half, encouraged by the "Thibaut!" from the public address system. There were no video scoreboards to see the close-ups of the players, but it didn't matter. Applause for all of them, for Ancelotti, who returned to the Bernabéu six years later, and a heartfelt and moving ovation during the tribute to Lorenzo Sanz, who died last year during the pandemic. Mijatovic and Sanchís appeared on the pitch with the seventh European Cup, Salgado and Casillas with the eighth, Morientes and Fernando Sanz, his son, with the Intercontinental, Hierro and Guti with the 27th League, Chendo and Amavisca with the Spanish Super Cup, Arlauckas and Antúnez with the Basketball Cup Winners' Cup,Lorenzo Sanz Jr. and Angulo with the 28th ACB League. Along with them, Mariluz, his wife, their children and their grandchildren who received the affection of the people. A few minutes later, the memory of the victims of the Covid, among them some ex-Madridistas such as Radomir Antic, and the initial whistle, expected and desired by thousands.

On the street, Avenida Concha Espina, its people and its bars have missed the Santiago Bernabéu. A few steps on its asphalt and a couple of questions to the owners of the premises serve to understand the emptiness that this area has felt during the last 560 days. The pandemic, first, and the absence of football in Chamartín, later, almost squandered his life savings. But luckily the ball and the people have returned. "Much more people than up to now. And thank goodness", declares the waiter of a local. "It has affected us and we hope to recover something, although not yet at the level prior to the pandemic," they clarify.

Next to it, the manager of 'Carls Jr.' He admits that they opened the bar a year ago thinking about "the future." "This year has been difficult, but we hope to come back. There is more atmosphere and, if they win, more will come," they joke. In Marceliano Santa María, mythical among Madridistas, beer has once again been drunk in the street: "Many workers come here to eat. Without them we would have died during the months without football. We almost closed," explains the owner of one of the bars . "At the top? At the top it was a Madrid-Barça before the pandemic. 20,000 people are still few," replies another.

In the official Madrid store, a man observes the name and number of Camavinga's shirt.

"Is this the new one?" He asks his son, who nods.

Dani has come from Nice to Madrid and the Bernabéu is a "mandatory stop".

"It is one of the reasons to come to the city."

Well that.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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