Winner of the VI Madridista Christmas Story Contest

A toddler membership card

My grandchildren now ask me what I favored most about Christmas once I was a little bit boy, numerous years in the past. I do not doubt it: “Look forward to the arrival of the Three Clever Males and watch, on black and white TV, the Actual Madrid Christmas basketball event.”

Legendary names come to thoughts: Sáinz, Emiliano, Sevillano, Luyck, Brabender… “What channel was it on?” they ask me. “On Spanish Tv, the one one there was then.” They take a look at me with compassion, like different instances. And I am not telling you that, regardless of that, we had been very completely happy when Actual Madrid received.

I am already trying ahead to the arrival of the Three Clever Males. Christmas – I mirror – is joyful for youngsters; At my age, what it brings us are recollections and nostalgia, one thing bittersweet. The normal carol says it: “Christmas Eve is coming, Christmas Eve is leaving”…

Whereas my spouse prepares issues for Christmas dinner, I dedicate myself to closing the accounts for the quarterly tax return. It is virtually as full of life as seeing that the referee would not name a transparent penalty given to Vinicius…

Today, all of us have extra free time. I often occupy them making an attempt to place a little bit order within the drawers of my desk. All year long, they’ve been crammed with ineffective issues: electrical energy and water payments, financial institution accounts, gives to measure my listening to totally free, some congratulations… It isn’t essentially the most applicable factor to deliver me the much-touted pleasure of Christmas.

This time, nonetheless, my coronary heart skipped a beat when, below a pile of envelopes, I discovered a small, rubberized, brown folder filled with previous papers: the College Report Card; a First Communion card; some commercials for previous motion pictures, “The 4 Feathers”, “Ivanhoe”, “Quo Vadis”… And an surprising shock: a burgundy-colored license, with scuffed edges, a golden protect and a crown.

Though I hadn’t seen it for a few years, I acknowledged it immediately: it’s my Actual Madrid Youngsters’s Membership card… Once I open it, I see, on the correct, the cardboard photograph, in black and white, of a boy, with a sweater and tie, as all of us wore then, who appears to be me, with a critical however excited expression; On the left, below a bit of plastic, a small pile of receipts that assure having paid the month-to-month membership price. I take a look at the date and it virtually makes me dizzy.

The recollections pile up. Within the college yard, I used to play soccer with a cork ball and I used to return residence lined in bruises. On Sunday mornings, my older brother took me to observe video games on the Producer area, very near residence: an esplanade with two targets, with out stands or fences, the place groups from Madrid firms performed.

Years later, the Three Clever Males introduced me a “regulation” ball, fabricated from leather-based, with a strap, that may stick into you for those who completed with a header; Additionally, some laborious and heavy soccer boots, with studs. We performed in opposition to groups from different colleges, on the Guindalera or Templo de Debod fields: since they had been fabricated from filth, blows and accidents had been frequent.

My father educated us with rigor and austerity. Greater than as soon as, I did not perceive his calls for and I acquired indignant… Once I handed with good grades in Entry and First Yr of Baccalaureate, as a reward, he made my brother and me members and subscribers of Madrid.

The three of us had been going to the First Amphitheater, a superb entrance. The native residents had been well-dressed girls and gents, however that didn’t cease them from shouting and swearing when issues weren’t going nicely for Madrid. My father hid it however he did not allow us to use these phrases, after all. On the exit, the three of us returned strolling alongside Castellana, amidst the shouts of the truck drivers, who indicated which neighborhood they had been going to.

I used to be getting older, I continued taking part in soccer and I used to be a passionate fan of Madrid: I loved Rial’s passes, Gento’s gallops, Marsal’s dribbles; Di Stéfano was my god. And it nonetheless is, after all.

I had develop into a rebellious teenager. Quickly, I noticed that my father was going to soccer to take my brother and me. In fact, he wished our workforce to win, “that of the first rate folks,” as he mentioned, however, through the video games, he acquired fairly bored: he had not performed soccer as a toddler, that was not his world and he didn’t get pleasure from speaking about Madrid for hours and hours, as I did.

With Don Santiago Bernabéu and Alfredo Di Stéfano, we received the primary European Cup in Paris. I adopted the ultimate on the radio, like everybody else. Upon returning to Madrid, the gamers paraded in open automobiles, carrying the Cup excessive. My brother and I went to see them go on María de Molina Avenue: it was an unforgettable time.

As we knew that the ultimate of the second European Cup could be performed in Chamartín, our hope was that Madrid would qualify. In the long run, he did it: folks had been loopy to get a ticket. My classmates envied me as a result of they knew that I had it, as a member and subscriber: some wished to purchase it from me with cash, stickers or different favors however I refused, naturally.

My father had enrolled me in a French Academy to enhance the little I used to be studying in school. (All his coaching had been in French; he did not know a phrase of English.) There I met Javier, a boy a little bit older than me, and I grew to become an ideal good friend of his: his mother and father left him more cash and extra freedom than mine. He was good and good; He lent me comics and magazines; I knew some ladies… Straight away, she was my idol.

Per week earlier than the ultimate, Javier urged that I am going to the sport with him, on the Socios entrance; standing, naturally: “The place the actual amateurs go, those who actually perceive, not just like the corny ones on the First Amphitheater.” I did not inform him that that was our Subscription, naturally.

I used to be very excited to go to the ultimate with him however I did not know tips on how to inform my father. He had already informed us how fortunate we had been to have good tickets for an occasion like this…

After a number of days of doubts, I made a decision to “take the bull by the horns,” as my father used to say. I informed him to forgive me however {that a} good friend had invited me and that I’d like to go to Socios with him.

I will not overlook his expression when he requested me: “That is standing up, proper?” I answered sure, after all. He mirrored a little bit, placed on a face that I had by no means seen earlier than and reassured me: “Don’t be concerned, I perceive. You possibly can go together with your good friend. I will discover a good friend who needs to return with me. I hope you’ve gotten a good time. And should Madrid win.”

On the day of the sport, he requested my mom to organize a tortilla sandwich for me; He really helpful that I be very attentive to avalanches; He mentioned goodbye to me with a hug and with this phrase: “Be very cautious. And you already know, whether or not we win or lose, hala Madrid!”

Madrid received the European Cup in opposition to Fiorentina, two to zero, with targets from Di Stéfano and Gento. In Socios, standing, everybody pushed us and hugged us. It was an unforgettable afternoon.

Just a few days later, my father known as me to his workplace: “I believed we had been going to surrender the Madrid season tickets. You already know that I am not as a lot of a fan as you. You possibly can go to Socios, with your folks. Apart from, I get bored with going to the Stadium, I am getting older”…

I thanked him and so we did. He by no means returned to the stadium however he used to ask me: “How is our Madrid doing?” Till the day he died, he all the time adopted Madrid’s video games: first, on the radio; later, once they gave them, on tv.

He all the time continued to ask me about our workforce: “You’re extra of a fan, you perceive way more than me.” Madrid was one thing that united us, when many issues had already separated us.

This Christmas, by organizing my desk drawers and discovering my Actual Madrid Youngsters’s Membership card, I’ve recovered many aged recollections. They’re issues that all of us carry inside us and which can be by no means utterly misplaced.

And I’ve made a agency decision: at Christmas dinner, I’m going to ask my grandchildren how they see Actual Madrid now…