La Liga is a pantomime and Mourinho is the Villain

For those who do not have a clue nor an interest in football, I do apologise. You just have to bear with me for this post.

  

I have taken an interest in football as of late, more specifically the La Liga which is the Spanish equivalent of the Premier League. What makes La Liga great is because it has two of the best football teams in the world. What makes La Liga bad is because it has two of the best football teams in the world that pretty much dominate the league. The two teams are Real Madrid FC and Barcelona FC.

Every year without fail, one of the two teams wins the La Liga, which to be honest can be rather boring and as you would imagine they are fierce rivals. Now this rivalry could have just been contained in sport, but sadly it is also political. So to support one or the other brings about a perception (rightly or wrongly) about you.

Barcelona FC is the team of Catalonia, one of the regions in Spain that sought independence, wanting to be a country of its own. This ideology did not go down so well with the Spanish dictator Franco who wanted a united Spain and as a result the Catalans were persecuted. Real Madrid is of course, is in Madrid and was the team whom Franco supported. Even with that fact aside, Real Madrid is known for being ostentatious, spending serious cash on players who are referred to as Galácticos (superstars) based on the astronomical money spent on them.

This then brings about a massive polarisation of newspapers who, to be fair are extremely biased in Spain anyway. On one hand you have the socialists who abhor any connection with Franco singing praises to Barcelona FC. Whilst the centre right/right wing papers often celebrate Real Madrid. From a neutrals perspective, this would seem like a parody taking the focus off of football and bringing across a political agenda instead. You tend to get the pantomime effect with good team/bad team each day.

 Now, the plot has now thickened with the arrival of Mourinho. This guy is the embodiment of ego, but for a reason. He has pretty much won every domestic title in Europe bar Spain. He is now the coach for Real Madrid and has attracted a lot of controversy. If not for his underhand tactics, it would be for the mind games he enjoys playing with his opponent teams. There is one drama or another with this guy and he is now focusing his attention on the big match (El Clasico) where Real Madrid will be playing Barcelona which would ultimately dictate who will win the La Liga. He is subliminally taunting his rival to spice things up for the big match and the press are lapping it up.

You have got to love him, (or in the case of Catalonia) hate him for he is a man who knows which part to play and is enjoying it immensely.