Author: somethingforyourmallorcaweekend

I've lived and worked in Mallorca since 1990. I've worked at Pirates Adventure & Radio One Mallorca. I now work at Wave Mallorca Radio and have my own Concierge service called Prioritymallorca.com. This blog will give you my news, views and my life on our island in the sun.

Football Travel And The Brexit Effect

Any football aficionado will tell you that a supporter that follows his or her club home and particularly away is a true supporter. Now I’m not putting myself in that bracket, but over the last few weeks I have been lucky enough to go to two of the biggest games my two clubs have played in the last few years. Two clubs? How can you support two clubs, I hear you say. Well, I’ve been an Arsenal supporter all my life, however when I moved to Mallorca I missed the opportunity to go and watch live football. I travel back for a game in London when I can, but Real Mallorca have become my adopted club. I said the other week that following them to Sevilla was a great experience, even though they lost. It was the same for me and my two boys last week when we travelled to Munich to see Arsenal play in the Champions League quarter-finals. Finding tickets was not easy, and this is when a good network of friends comes in handy. Thank you to Debbie at Inspire Sport who managed to get them for us. 

My Wife said to all of us before we went, aren’t you going to take a coat? We had looked at the weather forecast, which didn’t look great, but none of us felt we needed one. Which in truth was a schoolboy error. As soon as we arrived in Munich, it was raining, which also turned to hail and sleet!  We managed to find the bar that many of the Arsenal fans were in, which was right in the centre of the city. It was an Irish bar that was right opposite a huge German beer hall, so you can imagine that everyone was enjoying the German hospitality. We decided to get to the ground early as I remembered how difficult it was to get there the last time I went, and also the boys were excited to see it. The Allianz Arena is situated in the north of Munich and is one of Europe’s most striking grounds. It certainly is impressive, and the atmosphere was amazing with a crowd of 75,000. One thing I’ve noticed in European games is within the Ultra fans there always seems to a “conductor” who starts all the songs. In Munich, there were two of them orchestrating everything. It’s not something you see so much in the UK, as it’s normally someone randomly starting each chant. 

You probably don’t need me to tell you the score, but two defeats in two away trips for my two teams certainly wasn’t great. But spending time with my boys and enjoying the atmosphere of the two different cities meant the results were soon forgotten about. We all agreed that going to away fixtures was actually more fun than going to home games, and it’s something that we will look to do more of in the future. 

Travelling away from the island has been interesting these past few weeks. We’re lucky to get the residents discount on flights and ferries travelling interisland and to the mainland. Although it does sometimes seem that companies take advantage of this by putting up their prices. But one of the main things is how easy it is to pass through customs travelling within Europe. Apart from showing our TIE identity cards at the check-in, we would just walk through at the other end. I can’t help feeling that Brexit has ruined that form of travel for us Brits and all the hanging around we have to do now. I’ve talked before about the difficulties in employing Brits now with the freedom of movement taken away. Which then begs the question, has Brexit actually been worth it? If anyone can give me a positive, then I’m willing to listen. 

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 

Mallorca Too Expensive?

I see a lot of comments on social media about how expensive Mallorca has become. Being an island that has to import most of its produce, unfortunately means we are hit harder than most. But most of the complaints seem to be about the cost of holidays, flights and hotels. Once again, being an island doesn’t help, as it limits the ways people can get to us. 

Possibly we have become victims of our own success and popularity means more, and more people are choosing to come here. If Tour Operators, hoteliers and airlines see that demand and load factors are high, then why would they drop their prices? I’m not saying it’s right, but it makes business sense and let’s face it, they are not in it to lose money. A change I have seen is that the Brits do not seem to dominate the market as much as they used to. In the resort of Magalluf which has been a predominantly British resort for years, we are now seeing Germans, French, Italians, Spanish, Scandinavians and Americans. At Pirates, particularly in our family Adventure show, we have seen a huge shift. Years ago, our market would have been 90% British, but that has now slipped to just over 50% with all the other markets filling the space. 

Mallorca hoteliers who own Iberostar and Melia hotels International hit the headlines when they were announced on Forbes billionaire list. Then came the usual pile on from the keyboard warriors about reducing their hotel prices in Mallorca. Let’s remember that although these businesses are based here, they have hotels and other businesses all over the World. So their fortune is not just built here. When I was in Seville in February, I booked a room for one night at the Eurostars Torre Sevilla for 3 of us, and it cost me €150. The weekend that Real Mallorca played there in the Copa del Rey final, the same hotel was €599 for one night! It’s a trend copied by tour operators, hoteliers and airlines worldwide and if you want to go somewhere that’s popular, I’m afraid you’re going to have to pay for it. 

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 

A Cautionary Tale

The photo above is of all the kids that are currently playing for Real Mallorca at youth level and all the coaches that are looking after them. The hashtag basically reads “our future”. In one way it’s an inspiring photo, if you look closely at their faces they are all smiling and dreaming of becoming a professional footballer. The truth however is somewhat different. Only 1 or possibly 2 of all those players will actually make it as a top player. The ones that fall by the wayside will be replaced by more aspiring players and the same thing will happen again and again. In my opinion more must be done to help these youngsters cope with rejection. Remember this is just one club, there are many more that will feed players into Mallorca meaning that many more will fall by the wayside. 

Professional Clubs the World over will hoover up the best talent and promise them the World, and sometimes it isn’t the best choice for the player. At such a young age, kids just want to and should be able to just play. If you’re good enough, you will be spotted and possibly asked if you’d like to move to a so-called better team. It happened to both of my boys, who started playing for a local team, CD Calvia and were scouted by CD San Francisco in Palma. At that point you have to make a decision whether it’s not only right for your child but right for you as a parent. Now I’m not called “Dad Taxi” for nothing, driving to Calvia village twice or three times a week is very different from driving to Palma, sometimes five times a week. In the case of my youngest, Jude, he has goalkeeper practice twice a week and then training with his team three times a week plus a game over the weekend. It’s a big undertaking and not a decision that should be taken lightly. I get asked by quite a lot by parents, what do I think is best for their child who’s been asked to move to another club. I will give my advice as I see it, but at the end of the day, it’s down to the parents and the child to make the final decision. As I said above, the most important thing is that they are playing regularly and not part of a big squad getting the odd appearance every now and again. Another big part of all this is to encourage them to work hard at school. I know a lot of clubs encourage this, which is good, but it does need to be reiterated by the parents too. Even if a child is rejected, they should be encouraged to look for another club, go back into further education, or if they are old enough to get into the job market. That doesn’t necessarily mean the end of their football dream, there are many examples of players that have been rejected and still made it as a professional. 

Probably one of the best players Real Mallorca has produced is Marco Asensio. He started at a local club, Plates de Calvia, followed by Real Mallorca. He then moved to Real Madrid and is now plying his trade at Paris Saint Germain. 

I think the feel good factor from Real Mallorca’s journey in the Copa del Rey will be positive for youth football here on the island. I’ve said lots of times that a successful Real Mallorca football team will not only be good for tourism but good for youth football here too. It is important that they remain a La Liga team and with seven games to go they are currently six points clear of relegation. 

I lost count last week the amount of people that asked me where to buy Real Mallorca v Real Madrid tickets. I’ve also said it before, buy a season ticket, as the Real Madrid and Barcelona games alone will pretty much cover the cost of the whole season. Whilst Mallorca lost to Madrid, a record crowd of 23,244 were at the Son Moix stadium, which was good to see. Hopefully a similar crowd will be at their next home game against Atlético Madrid on Saturday, May 4th and by that time they will have avoided relegation. 

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 

“I hope that it’s not another 20 years before we do son!”

You might be surprised when I say that Sevilla didn’t disappoint. Yes, of course it would have been amazing for Real Mallorca to win the Copa Del Rey, but the whole experience was a joy from start to finish. 

On the Friday, I talked to Hawksbee and Jacob’s on Talksport radio in the UK about how well Real Mallorca had done to actually get to the final. My youngest son Jude and I also visited the club shop at the stadium. Which, as you can imagine, was doing a roaring trade. Credit to the club’s owners, who have built a much larger one when the stadium was being converted. I’m not sure the old one, which was like a broom cupboard, would have coped. I talked about Nike last week, and it’s no surprise that with American owners, Mallorca swapped their shirt sponsor from Umbro to Nike in July 2021. Now they don’t make football shirts like they used to, and the more fashionable tighter fit means a fat git like me struggles to get into one. So I bought a much more flattering and cheaper t-shirt. My son bought the goalkeeper jersey and even though we got a 10% discount as season ticket holders, it was still an eye-watering €76.50.

Saturday morning we set off for Sevilla. We flew to Valencia and after a short stop we boarded the same plane for the trip to Seville. We arrived at three in the afternoon and asked the taxi driver to take us to as close to the Cathedral he could. As we got out of the taxi, all we could see was red and white Athletic Club shirts. Stories say there were 20,000 with tickets (which we’ll talk about soon) and another 50,000 made the trip without tickets. We found our way to our favourite tapas bar called “Pelayo”. It was a bar recommended to us by a friend, which we visit every time we go to Seville. It is very noticeable that when you’re eating out on the mainland, you can see that Mallorca is much more expensive. On leaving the restaurant, we found the square that quite a few of the Real Mallorca fans were congregating in. There was a great fun atmosphere with lots of singing and drinking. We bumped into quite a few friends, and then we all made our way to the ground. Up to that point, our day had gone really well. The checking of bags by the police just to get into the fan zone outside the ground was to me a bit excessive. But the same bag search happened again as you made your way into the grounds of the stadium. 

La Cartuja Stadium was built in the mid-nineties, as Sevilla fancied itself as an Olympic host city and set about building a stadium to the exacting standards laid down by the International Olympic Committee. Three years and 120 million euros later, it had a 60,000 capacity stadium, but no Olympic Games as Sevilla didn’t even make the ballot process for the 2004 or the 2008 games. They offered it to both the cities football clubs, but neither Real Betis nor Sevilla wanted an athletics track and to be tenants. So, since then it has hosted some Spain games, the Copa Del Rey, UEFA finals and music concerts. 

Once inside, it was clear that we were going to be outnumbered by the Athletic fans. They seemed to be everywhere. Each club was supposed to receive 20,000 tickets and the other 20,000 was supposed to go to dignitaries, sponsors and families of the players. But it looked to me that most had been got by the Athletic fans. Some had even got into the Mallorca end, and I think that Mallorca and the RFEF (Royal Spanish Football Federation) should look into that. Nevertheless, we out sang their fans, creating an unbelievable atmosphere and most of our fans were in way before the start. Ironic that it’s called the Copa del Rey (King’s Cup) and yet all the Athletic Club fans booed & whistled at the Spanish National Anthem and the King when put onto the big screen!  I’m sure most of you have heard the result by now, so I don’t need to go into any detail. Suffice to say that when we scored it was absolute bedlam, and unfortunately we couldn’t hang on. 

Grown men, women and children were crying around me, but in truth the best team won. If you could win on heart and passion, the cup would have been ours. Athletic Club’s annual budget is €261.60 compared to Mallorca’s €87.10 and in Nico Williams (man of the match) they have a player arguably worth more than the whole of the Mallorca squad. 

It is something I will look back on fondly, when 20,000 islanders went to Seville via plane or ferry to the mainland and then car, train, bus, coach, and we showed the World what a passionate football club we are. My Son said “do you think we’ll ever create that atmosphere again Dad?” 

My reply, “I hope that it’s not another 20 years before we do son!”

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 

The Nike Controversy

Last week I received a text that said “I predict you writing something on the new Nike England kit and flag.” Which made me smile, and in truth it would be amiss of me not to talk about it, as it created such a furore. If you’ve not seen it, Nike have produced an England football shirt with a purple, blue, black and red cross on the back of the neck. Changing the colour of the flag of St George was seen by most people as something you shouldn’t touch, and the public outcry is still running today. 

Firstly, for me, is it Nike (pronounced like the name Mike) or is it Nike (pronounced like the name Mikey). Well, it’s Nikey if you look it up. Founded in 1964, they have become the World’s leading apparel brand, worth $142.39 billion. The Nike tick and the slogan “Just do it” have become synonymous around the World.

Nike first signed a six-year deal with the English Football Association back in 2012, marking the end of Umbro’s sixty-year association with the National team. Umbro had been England’s official kit supplier since the 1950s, apart from an eight-year stretch from 1974-82 when Admiral took over. That was extended in 2018 to a twelve-year deal until 2030, said to be worth £400 million. 

I asked my two boys what they thought of the kit, and both were unimpressed and said why did they change the flag? Two boys who are 18 and 14 respectively and haven’t really been brought up with the flag of St George being part of our lives. In fact, both prefer the retro kits that England used to wear. 

High street retailer JD Sports has revealed that, for the first time ever, England’s away kit is selling better than the home kit. So, in my opinion, this is a great marketing ploy by Nike. Still sell the same amount of shirts but more away ones than home ones and next year produce a different one. And these shirts don’t come cheap, by the way, £124.99 in adult sizes and £119.99 for kids. With a deal lasting until 2030, what have they got to lose?

Remember that this is the same brand that didn’t want to produce a Mary Earps England goalkeeper jersey. They faced a widespread backlash and after mounting pressure, they relented and released Earp’s green long-sleeved Lionesses shirt for sale, with the product selling out twice in a matter of minutes. They’re not daft in the Nike marketing department, are they! 

Interestingly, England aren’t the only ones with kit problems. 

Germany has released a pink away kit, said to represent the diversity in Germany, but as you can imagine this has caused a bit of a rumpus. But the colour of the shirt was not the major talking point as far as the Germans were concerned. Last week, it was announced that the decades-long kit supply tie-up between German soccer’s DFB governing body and German sportswear giant Adidas, one of the most renowned technical deals in sport, will come to an end after the 2026 World Cup. And guess who’s taking over? Yes, you guessed it, our friends from Nike. Reports suggested that the Americans offered in the region of €100 million, almost double what their German counterparts at Adidas apparently offered. 

Even Spain has been caught up in a kit gate saga, although this dated back to 2017. German sportswear brand Adidas faced fury after critics claimed the colours of Spain’s national team’s shirt were too similar to the flag of Spain’s Second Republic – instead of its national flag.

Spain’s Second Republic spanned eight years from 1931 to 1939 and officially ended following the victory of nationalist leader Francisco Franco at the end of the devastating Spanish Civil War.

The republic’s flag featured a purple strip at the bottom of Spain’s red and yellow bands – and critics of the national team shirt drew comparisons due to the inclusion of a splash of purple down the shirt. 

Of the current top 10 in the FIFA football rankings, Nike produces the kits for France, England, Brazil, Netherlands, Portugal and Croatia. With Adidas producing the rest for Argentina, Spain, Belgium and Italy.

I find all this criticism of the shirt funny as we don’t really celebrate St George’s Day on April the 23rd, in fact English people celebrate St Patrick’s Day more. But you may have read earlier in the week that, due to a new initiative by the Calvia Town Hall, there are four days of St George’s celebrations this year in Palma Nova, which is great to see. Details can be found in the Majorca Daily Bulletin and at the Town Hall. We at Pirates are offering 50% off of our Main Deck seating that week on Wednesday 24th of April and Friday 26th of April. 

As for Nike, it seems to me they will keep on pushing the barriers and creating controversy, as it doesn’t seem to be affecting them. 

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 

Real Mallorca Brings Tourism – Fact

Last week I mentioned the importance of Mallorca having a successful football team from a tourism point of view. This week we learned that the Balearic government and the Council of Mallorca will pay 2.6 million euros to the club, a new tourism promotion sponsorship agreement. It was an agreement that was made under the previous PSOE government but dropped because of their coalition partners Més and Podemos being so anti-tourism. 

Reacting to the new agreement, the Més spokesperson at the Council of Mallorca, Jaume Alzamora, says that it is one thing is help and support sport and a very different thing to provide funds for something that will lead to more tourism “massification”.

He is critical of the use of public money for an organisation that is only motivated by financial interests. It is money for a company that does not have Mallorcan capital, has few local players but ones who earn “very high salaries”.

Luckily, these people are no longer in power, but they still speak utter rubbish in the press. Does Señor Alzamora realise that the majority of the football season is played in the low season, away from the really busy months? What business isn’t motivated by financial interests? It is run by an American company, that is true, but let’s face it, it hadn’t been run properly for years in the hands of Spanish owners. There are four Mallorcan born players in the current first team squad, which I consider to be a good number when you look at the size of the island. And who is he to question the salaries they earn?

Not only that, it’s a huge boost for all of our youngsters on the island wanting to become professional footballers. I highlighted last week that Real Mallorca’s youth team won the Copa del Rey, which is an unbelievable achievement. 

And one last fact for our friend from Més (that’s the party he represents by the way, make up your own gags!)

The president of the Mallorca Hotel Federation (FEHM), María Frontera, has said that the tourism sector is responsible for 7 out of every 10 jobs created in the Balearics.

The start of the season is upon us. With Easter falling so early, it’s been a bit of a conundrum for businesses here on the island whether they open or wait until the start of May. According to reports this week, 90% of Hotels in the Calvia region in the south of the island will be open, which is refreshing to hear. What I’m hearing and seeing is there doesn’t seem to be too much of a lull after Easter, which is always the problem when it falls so early. No business wants to be stuck with a load of employees on contract with nothing to do. At Pirates, we opened our Adventure show on Wednesday the 27th of March, with extra shows over Easter. That’s followed by Gringos on Saturday the 30th of March and Reloaded on Friday April the 19th. We have not seen such levels of bookings since the pandemic and speaking to all the tour operators, agencies and hotels, the feeling is a good one for the season. As I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, it’s important that we can look after these people to ensure that they come back year after year. 

May I take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy Easter. 

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 

Benjamin William White – Discuss

Benjamin William White might not be a name recognisable to all of you out there, but he hit the headlines this past week as he has refused to play for the England football team. Now, as someone who loved to play football and loves watching football, I would have given my right arm to have been given the chance to play for England. So why did White turn down the chance when there is a general assumption amongst most football fans that players must love the game as much as we do? I actually have some sympathy for him. Some of you might say, well you would being an Arsenal fan, but it has nothing to do with that. 

He is a player at the peak of his form, helping Arsenal to the top of the league and to the quarter-finals of the Champions League. But it might surprise you to know that he actually doesn’t enjoy watching football. Yes, he’s passionate and very good at what he does, but he sees it as a job and nothing else. He is, by his teammates’ admission, a complex character, and he doesn’t enjoy being away from his family. He always wants to be first choice, which is a good trait, but with England he obviously has greater competition. Added to that is an alleged row with England assistant coach Steve Holland over his attitude. All of that combined led to his decision. Now, he is not alone in being a player that doesn’t actually like watching football. Liverpool player Konstantinos Tsimikas is another example, and looking back in history there are more. Gareth Bale, Carlos Tevez, Gabriel Batistuta and Marc-Andre der Stegen to name just a few who saw football as a job and nothing else. 

Harry Redknapp was scathing in his reaction this week on Talksport. “I think Gareth Southgate said the door’s still open, didn’t he? The door should be slammed right in his mush,” Redknapp told talkSPORT.(charming!) “He doesn’t want to play for his country, he goes to the World Cup then comes home because he’s not getting in the team. I’m sorry, you’ve had your opportunity. You don’t want to play for England? You tell the Bobby Moores of this world who’s got 100-odd caps. The Shiltons, the Beckhams, the Rooneys those people, go and tell the Billy Bonds of this world who didn’t get a cap and should have done, and all those great players that you don’t want to play for your country. I think it’s disgusting, I can’t have it.” 

This is not military service, Harry, you have a choice. Maybe it’s the Spurs, Arsenal rivalry that wound Harry up, as he forgot to mention that he played with the great Jimmy Greaves at West Ham. He said, “He was a genius. He was on another level. His best days were behind him when he joined us at West Ham, but he was still a great player, and we couldn’t wait to be with him on his first day.” The part he failed to mention about Jimmy was that he retired from international football early after telling Sir Alf Ramsey that he had no intention of becoming a bit-part player in the England squad. 

So, in the world of football, White is not on his own. In the World of sport, he is not on his own either. Former world tennis number one Andre Agassi once said I play tennis for a living even though I hate tennis, hate it with a dark and secret passion and always have. 

Ronnie O’Sullivan, probably the greatest snooker player ever to grace the green baize, has had his demons on and off of the table. He once famously refused to play in the World Championships.

Even in the world of Showbiz, he is not on his own. The actor Johnny Depp from the Pirates of the Caribbean movies said “ I don’t have much further need for Hollywood, myself,” It’s a strange, funny time when everybody would love to be able to be themselves, but they can’t. They must fall in line with the person in front of them. If you want to live that life, I wish you the best.”

We live in a different world now and with the advent of social media, we can all voice our own opinions. We all have choices that some will agree with and others won’t, but it is up to us to make our own decisions and if that makes you happy, then in my opinion, that’s fine.

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 

Mallorca Shines in Another Industry

I’m always banging on about football in Mallorca and how important it is to the youth of our island but also the success of Real Mallorca and its importance to the island’s tourism industry cannot be underestimated. As it works mainly in the low season from late August to early May it should be shouted from the rooftops how well they are doing. Mallorca’s average home attendance last season was 14,798 and this season it currently stands at 17;193. The club has a record 20,000 season ticket holders compared to 16,000 last season and there is no doubt that the stadium improvements with more still to come are a big factor in this. The league form hasn’t been amazing and there’s still work to do to avoid relegation but the run to the Copa del Rey final has caught the fans attention. I talked last week about the difficulty in getting to the final in Seville but you could see as many as 20,000 make the trip. 

Tourism is our number one industry and I hear about more and more people coming to the island to take in a game. Mallorca have five home games left and two of those are against Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid which I’m sure will draw sellout crowds. 

The success of Real Mallorca’s first team has helped its U-19 Division Honor team to make history by winning the Copa del Rey Juvenil for the first time in their history. The team won 4-2 on penalties against RCD Espanyol in Oviedo after 120 minutes of high quality football but with no one managing to score a goal. This is a competition with the majority of teams from La liga represented including Real Madrid and Barcelona. A friend of mine went to watch the game and was very impressed by the team. Some of those players will be integrated into the first team or the B team next season and some will move onto other professional teams but it’s great to see them doing so well. 

Probably one of the best players Real Mallorca has produced is Marco Asensio. He started at a local club Platges de Calvia, followed by Real Mallorca. He then moved to Real Madrid and is now plying his trade at Paris Saint Germain. This week it was announced by Calvia Council that the Platges de Calvia stadium in Magalluf will be renamed the Marco Asensio Stadium in tribute to its finest player. 

Whilst this is all good news for Mallorca I’m still surprised that they still haven’t got a Women’s team, despite the island providing two of Spains World Cup winners in Cata Coll and Mariana Caldentey. It’s a subject I’m trying to get more information on. However our other professional team here in Mallorca, Atlético Baleares does have a very successful women’s team which to be honest is currently doing better than their Men’s team. Despite only being formed in 2018 they have made their way from local leagues to the Segunda RFEF which in women’s football is equivalent to the third division. They are currently in third place with an opportunity to get promoted to the Primera RFEF and then they will be one promotion from the highest women’s league in Spain. A great achievement.

Success on the pitch comes from good coaching and two of the biggest clubs in the English Premier League have coaches that were born here in Mallorca. 

Carlos Vicens of Manchester City was born in Colonia de San Jordi here on the island and started his career as the academy director and assistant manager at CD Llosetense. He joined City’s academy in 2017 and after a successful season in 20-21 as a Head Coach of the U18s, winning the FA Youth Cup and being crowned U18 Premier League National Champions, he was promoted to the first team as Assistant Coach under Pep Guardiola in the summer of 2021. As assistant coach he was credited on Match of the Day last Sunday as the architect for Jon Stones goal against Liverpool last weekend. 

Carlos Cuesta at just 28 years old has already got a very impressive coaching CV. He was born here in Palma and was an accomplished footballer playing at Santa Catalina Atlético and representing a Balearic representative side alongside fellow Mallorquín and Real Madrid player Marco Asensio. But playing wasn’t his thing, he enjoyed coaching so started with his clubs Benjamin(U-9 to U-10’s) team. After training the kids for four years, at 18 years old, Carlos moved to Madrid to study at INEF (Faculty of Sciences for Physical Activity and Sport) and also helped out at Atletico Madrid. Where, as he did here in Mallorca, he took control of a number of the youth teams and all the while he watched Diego Simeone coach the first team. Since then he has worked at Manchester City with Pep Guardiola and at Juventus with Max Allegri and Maurizio Sarri. He is now part of the new set up at Arsenal under Mikel Arteta, who was part of Pep’s coaching team where he first met Carlos. 

He speaks a remarkable six languages; English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, French and Catalan and works on a one-on-one basis with the players.

His focus is heavy on technical skills and tactical ideas, while physical loading is kept to the minimum. The training sessions are filmed and Cuesta does a lot of video analysis with Arsenal’s stars individually. For him it’s about holistically working out a player’s identity to find out what they need to thrive, leaning on their physical, mental, technical and tactical capabilities and requirements. That without doubt would have helped the players in the penalty shootout win against Porto last Tuesday. Even though he is only 28, he is already being talked about as a future manager. 

Once again Mallorca shines through in another industry and it’s remarkable when you think the population is just under one million people. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands 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 

Call Off Youth Football!(only for one weekend)

Mallorca’s finest L-R Javi Llabres, Antonio Sánchez, Abdon Prats & Sergi Darder

I wanted to follow up on something I wrote in February about the great strides Real Mallorca had made with their stadium and particularly in the their corporate offerings. I was positively critical if that’s grammatically correct as I didn’t want them to forget the true supporters who’d been with them through thick and thin. I am pleased to say I got a reply from the club the other day from Joan Serra who is the Commercial Director.

“I appreciate the points that you raise in your piece. It is evident that there are still some things missing to finish the project and among those that are missing are those that you mention in your email. We do not stop working on improving all aspects that make up a match day. Rest assured that we are working on it and in the near future you will notice these new features and improvements.”

I’ve done a bit of digging and found out that there will be in the North end of the stadium a high-performance sports clinic, a fitness center with spa, a coworking space and a two-story Sports Bar.

Without doubt when it is finished Real Mallorca will have one of the most impressive stadiums in La Liga. Saying that it is important that they remain in the league. There are 11 games to go and with Mallorca on 27 points, the target has to be 40 points to survive. If only they could replicate their Copa Del Rey form into La Liga as last week they won an incredible semi-final second leg against Real Sociedad on penalties to reach the Copa Del Rey final. No one gave them a hope after drawing the first leg 0-0 but a 1-1 draw in Sociedad meant they went to penalties. Dominic Grief their reserve keeper was the hero saving a first half penalty and one in the shootout giving them a 5-4 win. Every player who took a penalty buried it, meaning they go to their first final in 21 years. It’s an amazing achievement for a club that got relegated to the Segunda B(3rd division) in the 2016/17 season. 

They have reached the final three times in their history. Runners up in 1990/91 and 1997/98 and they won it in 2002/03 beating Recreativo Huelva 3-0 with 2 goals from Samuel Eto’o. That was 21 years ago, meaning that neither of my sons have seen Mallorca win a trophy. It’s just like being a fan of the other team from North London(Tottenham to the rest of you.) We were at Son Moix the night they beat Deportivo La Coruña 3-2 in the play-off final to get back into La Liga. If they could win the final against Athletic Club de Bilbao it would be probably their finest achievement. 

The problem for us fans here in Mallorca is how to get there. As soon as the winning penalty went in at 12.30 in the morning, I started to look at flights but stupidly went to bed without reserving any. The next morning they had all gone. I frantically looked and managed to find a flight with Iberia which wasn’t direct to Sevilla but with our island discount the price wasn’t too bad. The price of hotels was ridiculous and that was before Bilbao had got to the final. Since then I know many fans who are struggling to find either a flight or a ferry to get there, never mind a hotel. Surely the airlines should be putting on more flights and at regulated prices? Now none of us have actually got a ticket yet as the details haven’t been released. But I’ve been told that each club should get an allocation of 20,000 seats and as we have that number of season ticket holders that should be enough as not everyone will want to or be able to go. 

With that in mind I’m calling on the FFIB (Federation of football in the Balearics) to call off all of the youth football games that weekend of the 5th, 6th and 7th of April. To give all parents and their children a chance to go to Seville. This has been a wait of 21 years and the island and its football team needs all the support it can get.

As you probably know I have two boys playing in the youth football system and there’s nothing better than seeing our professional team doing well. As it gives all our youngsters something to aim for. In fact the club pictured this week four players from its first team squad that were born here in Mallorca. Abdon Prats and Sergi Darder both born in Arta, Antonio Sánchez born in Palma, Javi Llabres born in Binnisalem. It’s great to see locally born players doing so well and long may that continue. I do hope they do the island proud on April 6th. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands 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 

Isn’t This All A Bit Draconian?

In 1990 when I first arrived in Mallorca families used to visit the island every month. So you wouldn’t see a major difference whether the children were on holiday from school or not. This changed however in 2012 when the coalition government of the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats brought in a law that only allowed children to go on holiday in the official school holidays. The Minister was Michael Gove(remember him?). He said at the time “It is wrong for parents to take children out of school during term time to take advantage of cheaper holidays and there should be a call for action to stop holiday companies cashing in by ramping up prices during the school holidays.” He added “that the holiday industry should look at itself in the mirror and ask whether it was doing enough to help its customers.”

Well that didn’t work did it. Tour operators, airlines, hotels, in fact pretty much everybody involved in the tourist industry puts their prices up in school holidays. I know as I book mine at Christmas both in the UK and abroad. 

I mention this as the government have decided in their wisdom to raise the fine for parents removing their children from school for a holiday in term time. Under the new national framework, all schools will be required to consider a fine when a child has missed 10 or more sessions (5 days) for unauthorised reasons. From August 2024, the fine for school absences across the country will be £80 if paid within 21 days, or £160 if paid within 28 days.

You have to get permission from the head teacher if you want to take your child out of school during term time.

You can only do this if:

  • you make an application to the head teacher in advance (as a parent the child normally lives with)
  • there are exceptional circumstances

It’s up to the head teacher how many days your child can be away from school if leave is granted.

Isn’t this all a bit Draconian? What about asking Governments to actually think outside the box and relaxing the rules on not allowing kids to travel during term times? Before 2013 this was the case and do we truly believe that kids suffered in their education? This is not about encouraging truancy this would be an agreement between parents and teachers who let’s face it are the people who should decide not a Government Minister. If the child has a good attendance record and is not behind in their work in my view they should be encouraged to go on holiday. Seeing new countries, experiencing new cultures, hearing new languages and tasting different cuisines should be part of their education. 

And of course Mallorca would be the perfect destination. 

Richie is the MD at Pirates, the islands 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