In any sport, precociousness records are an indication of how far an individual can go when he reaches his fullness. Carlos Alcaraz marked yesterday in Queen’s one of those milestones that allow you to dream big. Carlitos is the youngest to win tournaments on clay, on hard courts and on grass in the same season. Nothing like this had happened since Mats Wilander, in 1983. The Swede had
19 years for Alcaraz’s 20. But it is not only that.
The tennis player is loading the learning curve
. Even the Beatles played about two thousand times live before recording their first album. Alcaraz played his first tournament on grass this week. There is no progression because this surface simply did not exist in his life as a tennis player.
His racket is a door-busting battering ram. If I had to play a tournament on a freshly scrubbed floor, I would win it too
. The first big one of him is about to fall.
“DON’T BELIEVE US”
The most veteran journalists remember a memorable appearance by Jorge Valdano when he was general manager of Real Madrid. He could have been such a day as today, in 2002. The circumstance was similar to the current one.
The great signing of the summer did not take place and the name of Ronaldo Nazario sounded thunderously as Mbapp sounds today
. After denying a future operation, Valdano had an attack of sincerity and confessed to the group of reporters who overwhelmed him at the gates of the Bernabu:
“I recommend one thing to you: when these dates arrive, don’t believe us”
. Ronaldo, of course, ended up signing for Real Madrid, on that night of rolled up shirts, on August 31, at five to twelve, on the horn. The ruling is as valid today as it was two decades ago. input
It is countercultural that a team like Real Madrid is going to play a season without any player being assigned the number 9
. Has no sense. Not in an entity called soccer club. But beyond something that for some -the shirt with the nine- can be folklore or posturing,
Madrid has the worst attack today without Benzema and without Asensio’s goals
. And beyond sports, there has not been a season in which Florentino Pérez has not taken the business plan into account.
And no, the signing of Real Madrid cannot be Taylor Swift
. Paraphrasing Valdano, “don’t believe us.”
OSASUNA MEETS UEFA
Osasuna has come up against UEFA just the season in which the one who should be going through that trance is Barcelona.
Sanctioning Osasuna would be like punishing someone who has already been reintegrated and rehabilitated from his crime.
. With the mitigation that it was the club itself that fought to get the dirty hands of some irresponsible and judged out of the entity.
UEFA has to tread carefully. He not only judges Osasuna. There are worse things.
Much worse.
