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Author Archives: Jimmy Burns
Of Gladiators, a French boy, and Mourinho
If the last days of the Roman Empire were with us once again, the people would have no need of prized gladiators-they would have Real Madrid and FC Barcelona players instead. Increasingly the encounters between the two teams have both a tension and brilliance about them that easily surpasses any other encounter on La Liga, and reaches levels of collective and individual skill hard to find in any other league, or indeed sport. The excitement was there from the opening minutes as Ronaldo led a series of devastating charges …
Valdes, Iker Casillas, & the politics of Spain
Valdes, Casillas, and the politics of Spain Victor Valdes’ irrevocable announcement that he does not intend to renew his contract with FC Barcelona prompts me to suggest a possible solution to the antagonisms between Catalunya and Madrid- have Iker Casillas replace him. The Real Madrid goalkeeper is at loggerheads with Mourinho, but enjoys good and enduring friendships with other players in La Roja , among whom are some Barca players. The presence of Iker in Barca would bring perhaps the best goalkeeper in the world – better than Valdes without …
Casillas y el Barca
Casillas y el Barca La anunciada salida de Víctor Valdés del Barca me sugiere una idea genial para solucionar los antagonismos entre Madrid y Catalunya – que le sustituya Iker Casillas. El portero del Real Madrid se lleva mal con Mourinho pero tiene buenas y duraderas amistades con los jugadores de La Roja, entre ellos los que son del Barca. La presencia de Iker en el Barca traería tal vez el mejor portero del mundo – mejor que Valdés sin duda-a la ciudad que ya presume de no solo tener …
Pep’s wise choice
Pep Guardiola’s wise choice Well who would have thought it? Less than twenty-four hours after Pep Guardiola was quoted in England as saying that he hugely respected the Premier League, setting off a fresh wave of speculation about whether it might be Chelsea or Man City , it turns out it was all a bit of a red herring , if not a more calculating diversionary tactic designed to gain contractual time. Now that we know he has chosen Bayern Munich, it seems it is one of those decisions that …
Robert Kee (5th October 1919- Jan 11th 2013)
Remembering Robert Kee: 1919-2013 I owe a personal tribute to Robert Kee, the writer and broadcaster, who has died aged 93. It was Robert who gave me my first real break in journalism and taught me much about what I came to admire about the profession. The year was 1977. Robert was planning a documentary for the excellent Yorkshire TV on Spain after Franco. Born in Madrid, and bilingual in English and Spanish, I had been juggling with Marxism , Spain and Latin America as a student , and …
Tito’s cancer: the enemy at the gates
This was not something the Mayan calendar predicted but the news that Tito Vilanova’s cancer has returned has a fateful element to it. Cancer has a terrible unpredictability about it. It is likely that Tito, under medical advice, would have taken on the job of Barca manager, knowing that he was on borrowed on time, keeping the big enemy at a sufficient distance not just to live but to create. We will never know how the sheer stress of succeeding Pep Guardiola and putting up with the pressure of keeping …
The Litvinenko case: Truth must prevail
My old newspaper the FT with a typical understatement of a ‘non-core’ news story relegates the Litvinenko pre-inquest review hearing story to a page 2 read-through today. Others were rather bolder. The Times splashed on it, and the Spanish media have got pretty excited too. Whichever way you look at it, the Litvinenko case , which the FT gave me both time and column inches to cover back in 2006 , is one that certainly needs revisiting, however much sectors of the UK and Russian governments would like it to …
Author’s personal favourite now on kindle
How time flies. I remember just two years ago finding myself berating a fellow passenger on a train from Washington to New York who was on the seat next to me reading from a kindle. “You are putting me out of a job!” I moaned. The book he was reading was not only not one of one my own but the thought of a whole new generation begining to opt for a download and a screen in preference to a firm hard back and a visit to the library filled …
A bad week for journalism
Nothing quite like meeting up with old British media friends to be reminded what a good move it was to liberate one-self from full-time journalism when one still has the energy and spirit to do something altogether more worthwhile and positive-like choosing what to write, when and for whom. While my former colleagues immersed themselves in gossip- an as yet unpublished scandal, rumours of imminent redundancies, the slick performances of certain editors on Question Time, and the struggle of older journalists to feel appreciated- I could think only what a …
From Viña del Mar 1906 to London 2012: A Chilean family story
From Viña del Mar 1906 to London 2012 – A Chilean family story “Mientras escribo estoy ausente,Y cuando vuelvo ya he partido, voy a ver si a las otras gentes les pasa lo que a mi me pasa… “While I write I am absent and when I return I have already left; I am going to find out if other people experience the same thing as I do, if they are as many as I am, if they look like each other, and and when I have found all this …