Category Archives: Blog
Paco de Lucia: The Death of a Musical Wizard
World music is in mourning following the unexpected death , aged 66, on a Mexican beach, of Paco de Lucia, one of the greatest guitarists of modern times, a truly musical wizard. Born Francisco Sanchez Gomez, to a Portuguese mother and an Andalucian father, de Lucia (a name he adopted professionally) spent his childhood in a poor neighbourhood of Algeciras where his talent for playing guitar better than his father flourished amidst the sounds, and legends of the gypsies. Paco –who was not of pure gypsy blood but carried …
The night Barca recovered its self-esteem at The Etihad
As someone who lived through FC Barcelona’s drubbing last season at the hands of Bayern Munich, one thought above all dominated my expectations of last night’s match against Man City at the Etihad stadium: Would Barca get beaten by Pellegrini ‘s Premier League Galacticos, thus losing not to a team of star players but also more important boasting of a style that, encouraged by the ex-Barca executives, on a good day, evokes the glory days of Guardiola under Laporta. As things turned out, Barca’s 2-0 victory was achieved in …
Luis Aragones: The Wise Man from Hortaleza
Former Spanish national football coach Luis Aragones has died at the age of 75. Eulogies have poured in from football enthusiasts around the world for the man who ended La Roja’s 44-year wait for a major international trophy by winning Euro 2008 with exciting style of play.At the weekend FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid fans and players were among those who paid tribute to the tough but wise Castilian . This is an abridged extract from my book on Spanish football La Roja (published in the UK by Simon …
The competing claims on Barca
Watching FC Barcelona these days certain things seem evident to me. Firstly, the circumstances surrounding the resignation of club president Sandro Rosell (see earlier blog)have fuelled a sense of political and administrative uncertainty, despite the remaining governing junta trying to carry on as if nothing had really happened. The fact is that it is unusual for the president of any major corporation or government to resign without giving more of an explanation that one suggesting an unspecified conspiracy against him. Meanwhile the fiscal and judicial investigation into the Neymar …
The Rosell resignation: Is Barca more than a club?
More than thirty years of journalism, much of it investigative, with one of the most respected newspapers in the world- The Financial Times- taught me to be mindful of two of the contradictory threads in human nature: there is often more cock-up than conspiracy, while there is seldom smoke without fire. In the absence of the full facts of the case being in the open, and pending the outcome of an ongoing judicial enquiry , I am reluctant to jump too quickly to any conclusions about the current …
Atletico Madrid throws Barca the gauntlet
Nothing like a walk on my favourite beach in Sitges, to rediscover in some spontaneous beach football involving Catalans, other Spaniards and Latin Americans the game in its all its elemental joy, natural talent and skill. That the Camp Nou is but a short train ride and quick metro hop away gives Sitges’s inhabitants the added privilege of living within the radius and aura of one of the greatest sporting clubs in the world, FC Barcelona , that commands a loyalty only wholly understood not just in terms of …
My Christmas Carol
a. Verse One Just now I watched my football team FC Barcelona finish off their year playing a beautiful game of football-poetic in its creation, selfless in its delivery. The team played without their two non-Spanish superstars-Messi and Neymar- and yet had Pedro (born in the Canaries) and Cesc (a Catalan) scoring some sublime goals, and Jordi Alba (a Catalan) and Iniesta (a Castilian) in perfect harmony down the left-hand side and in the middle. Barca’s manager, Tata Martino likes to rotate his players (several of them Spanish internationals) …
Neymar’s night at the Nou Camp
Celtic dismally failed to live up to their brave heart image last night, but their gutless performance at the Nou Camp should not detract from the fact that this was a FC Barcelona victory worthy of note. Above all, this will be remembered as the match in which Neymar showed what he is capable of as a playmaker, on and off the ball, assisting, delivering, and scoring goals-his Champion’s League drought transformed into a flowing hat rick. And to have Neymar showing his true talent, and visibly enjoying himself, …
La Roja’s Brazilian challenge
To mark today’s draw for next summer’s World Cup, let me offer you a bit of interesting history, and some preliminary thoughts on who might win. As I relate in my latest book ‘La Roja’ (now published in English (UK & US editions), Spanish – ‘De Rio Tinto a La Roja’, and German) https://www.jimmy-burns.com/books/ the world of football was in a different place back in 1950 when Brazil hosted her last football World Cup. It was the first such tournament to be staged anywhere in the world since 1938 …
Nigella- I am on your side
It’s a tried and tested argument that high profile personalities should know that having their private lives splashed across the front-pages is an inevitable part of their existence, and thus should have no reason to be surprised when this happens. In the age of the internet and 24 hours news nothing really can be kept secret, so it’s best to make sure that you have nothing to hide that could be used against you. Reputation can be protected only on the basis of integrity and honesty. Now Nigella Lawson …
