Why Do I follow Real Madrid?

I did not choose to follow Madrid. It's the club that chose me.

Despite the fact that when I started following the club we were on one of the worst runs in our history while Barca was all about the "Dream Team". I still don't know why I preferred Madrid... why I was not suckered by all the hype about Barca... I still don't know why Tenerife broke my heart two years in a row. Why I let my younger brother, a Barca supporter, gloat. As the older one, wiser in the ways of the world (okay relatively speaking at that age), I should have been the one supporting Barca and the one gloating.
It wasn’t the history or the Champions League titles because I knew nothing about them till much later. It had nothing to do with being the greatest team in the world because back then even Marseille seemed a bigger club in my worldview, leave alone Barca and Milan.
I can’t think of one reason why I chose Madrid. Which is why I am convinced I did not have a choice. The club chose me.


I have seen us beat Barca while sitting in the upper tiers of the Bernabeau... hugged the guy sitting next to me when we scored. I have had animated conversations over a (or was that several) “cervasas” the previous week complaining about how Raul Bravo seemed to play better than our stars, me speaking in English, the others in Spanish... neither understanding the other and yet understanding each other completely. I have spent hours queuing outside to buy a ticket and not get one because I was not a socio only to see a ticket appear miraculously the night before the match. I discovered our history and tradition in the European Cup when the commentators spoke about it in our first CL title and later in 1999 when I started using the internet regularly. A few years ago I read Morbo and White Storm. But all of this was AFTER the club chose me.

Long before the era of the Galacticos, before the 1-2-3 of Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo, I supported the club with it’s significantly less glamorous heroes… Michel, El Buitre, Maneul Sanchis, Hu-GOL, Redondo, Hierro, Prosineki (sp?), Raul, Roberto carlos, Salgado… all heroes to me even if most of them (except maybe Raul and the vulture) could hardly qualify as a modern Galactico. I even have a soft spot for the Karembus and Karankas and Ivan Campos of the world. It’s what happens when you love a club…it’s bigger than the individuals, bigger than wins and losses, bigger than losses of form or downturns of fortune, it’s a part of who you are.

Even today, 15 years later, people still find it strange as I walk into office in Bangalore on a Monday morning in depression saying “we” lost the league because of Valencia’s spoineless performance last night, and sulk through the rest of the day. “We” lost? How can this guy sitting thousands of miles away, who has been to Madrid once in his life, who can speak no more than 30-40 words of Spanish claim ownership… claim a “we” or an “our”?

But this is how it is. I chose football and Madrid chose me. It’s a part of my DNA now, something my son shall inherit one day and all I can say is that I am happy he will not wait 12 years in the wilderness like I did before discovering Real Madrid.

Ronaldo's legacy

[QUOTE=Lucho-the-Legend]It is true that Dinho has had a "playboy" lifestyle off the field, he is brazilian. In defense of his past, at PSG he was in a situation where his skill and contribution were not exploited by the manager. In fact, it is well documented that Dinho has issues with the manager.
In some previous post, it has been noted that Dinho will never reach the level of Ronaldo. First off, Ronaldo has always been a little over-rated and been on teams where he is the only goal scorer. Although he does have a tremendous knack of getting into a goal scoring position, he has always been on teams with great players around him. I am not convinced he would be as effective a player on a sub par team.
Dinho on the other hand has never been on a squad like the ones Ronaldo has been apart of, with the exception of Barca's current squd and maybe the Edgar Davids era.[/QUOTE]

1. If you look at WC2002 most teams played in a situation where they had one pure goalscorer... I did not see anyone else score 8 goals.
2. I admit the Triple R meant good service but I'd venture that it's not necessarily the greatest servive sice 1978 (eg. Brazil in 1986)... yet no one has come close to scoring 8 goals in over 20 years.
3. Barcelona circa Ronaldo were arguably not as good as Barcelona circa Dream Team... but Ronaldo's impact that year was better than anyone in the Dream Team era including Romario's.
4. In 2003-04 the consensus was that it was Casillas and Ronaldo who kept us afloat. The moment Ronaldo lost form, our title chase sank. The consensus was also that neither Ronaldo nor Casillas had much support in terms of either service or defence. But Ronaldo was pretty damn effective on a sub-par team.
5. Yes PSV was a powerful club in Holland but historically PSV is no bigger in Holland than PSG is in France. And you'd be hard proven to prove that the players that surrounded him at PSV were significantly "greater" than Ronaldinho's in PSG. But Ronaldo made the critical difference in terms of taking them to the next level, just as Romario had during his time there. Just look at how Ajax reasserted its dominance soon after Ronaldo left. So I'd say that with comparable quality in terms of a supporting cast, Ronaldo arguably had a greater impact.
6. As you say yourself, though not explicitly, Ronaldinho only came into his own when he had a strong squad around him (Brazil in 02, Barca post-davids and this year). Even in Barca he did not achieve much before Davids came along. So arguably it's Ronaldinho who has a greater need (or at least as great a need) for a strong squad, who "would be not be as effective a player on a sub par team" which by your logic would be indicative of his being overrated.

Now I don't really think Ronaldinho is overrated, I'm just using your arguments to demonstrate that you're not giving Ronaldo his due. I agree on current form he is rubbish but it's pretty much undeniable that until 1998 he was on course to become the greatest forward since Pele (yes I'm certain that if it was not for the injury he would have been greater than Van Basten and Romario , in fact you can still argue that he is greater than them).

Even post injury, he won a world-cup where he scored more goals than anyone has in about half a century, he won us a Spanish league by scoring in almost 7 games in a row towards the end of the season to help us overhaul Sociedad, he got a standing ovation for his genius at Old Trafford after a performance that knocked Man U out of the CL, the sort of spontaneous appreciation from a vanquished team’s supporters that I have not seen for any player in many, many years.

If Ronaldo were to quit the game today he would take his place in the pantheon of legends. Don't let the shadow of his past self you see today cloud you from appreciating the phenomenon he once was. For any Brazil supporter, Ronaldo will always be “il fenomenon” as much as Raul is the Saint of the Bernabeau. We are objective enough to accept they have fallen but will also not accept their legacy being tarnished.