There’s always a sense of excitement and nervousness when a new football season starts. How will your team play, where will they finish the season and will they win a trophy, are three of the most important questions in most fans minds. There was the same anticipation for me and my two boys as we made our way to the Estadi Son Moix last Sunday, to see Real Mallorca’s first game of the season. Just the small matter of Real Madrid as our first opponents. Yes that Real Madrid who were La Liga Champions, Champions League winners and just last week they had won the UEFA Super Cup. And to top it all off, they had just signed arguably the greatest player in the World right now Kilian Mbappe.
A trip to the stadium is no longer a chore, apart from the parking of course! But the American owners have totally transformed the club from top to bottom. It is now a pleasure to turn up early outside and have a couple of alcoholic beers. I say that because alcohol is banned inside the stadium, unless you’re with the garlic prawns brigade. That has now been enhanced with the opening of the Mallorca Sports Bar, which luckily enough for us is under the stand where we sit. They had big screens showing live games from La Liga, the Bundesliga and the Chelsea v Manchester City game from the Premier League.
Last week I read that the most expensive pie-and-a-pint combo in the Premier League this season is at West Ham United’s London Stadium. It will set you back a total of £11.30 for both on a match day. Well Mallorca will certainly give them a run for their money. A burger and a caña(half a lager) will set you back €12.50 or €15.50 if you want a pint! Now I have to say the burger was actually pretty good but not €9.50 pretty good. The club need to make sure they don’t price their fan base away from the game. They have a lot of great corporate opportunities but never lose sight of the real fans who turn up week in and week out.
Back to the game and let’s remember that Mallorca finished in 15th place last season, just the 55 points behind Real Madrid. So expectations weren’t that high especially when you’re facing a front line of Mbappe, Vinicius and Rodrygo, with Bellingham, Tchouameni and Valverde just behind. Last year Madrid’s spending cap was €727.50 million compared to Mallorca’s €61 million and their newly refurbished stadium holds just over 80,000 and our newly refurbished stadium hold just over 23,000. You can’t compare them. But at the end of the day it’s 11 v 11 and that means anything can happen. Which as it turned out it did. Madrid scored first in the 13th minute and it looked like it could be a cricket score. But to Mallorca’s credit they battled back into the game and in my opinion were the better team in the second half. They equalised in the 53rd minute with a goal from Muriqi and could have won right at the end when Mallorca born Antonio Sanchez had a golden opportunity in front of goal but skied his shot higher than the Tramuntana mountains. A point was more than we could have dreamed of and hopefully that’s the sign of things to come. Under new coach Jagoba Arrasate, we seem to be more on the front foot and I like the look of the squad and what he’s doing with it.
Today at 16.00, Mallorca play Osasuna away. This is significant game in may ways. Our coach Arrasate has joined from Osasuna after six successful years and guiding them to a best placed 7th. Osasuna have replaced him with Mallorca’s former coach Vincente Moreno, who guided us to two successive promotions. There’s also Ante Budimir, a former Real Mallorca player, who downed tools and refused to play for the team unless he got a transfer. Mallorca only won away twice last season so it’s important to try and get something from this game. Note that Mallorca play their next home game on Tuesday August 27th at 19.00. I’m saving up for the burger and pint combo!
Richie is the MD at Pirates, the island’s number one night out featuring Adventure, Reloaded and Gringos. Subscribe to receive his blogs at http://www.dadtaximallorca.com
Follow him on Twitter @DadTaxi1 & Instagram @dad.taxi, or feel free to email him at rprior@globobalear.com
Dad Taxi Mallorca 