Open Thread: March 26, 2021

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

Real Madrid linked to Luis Campos.

Reports surfaced yesterday stating that Luis Campos, current director of football for Lille OSC, will be joining Real Madrid. While those may have been a bit premature, there appear to be talks underway between the two parties. Foot Mercato reported that if Luis Campos ends up joining Real Madrid, his position would be the head of the scouting department.

Widely recognized as the man behind Monaco’s golden generation in 2017, Campos began coaching in the lower leagues of Portugal and eventually in the Portuguese Primeira Liga. As manager of Gil Vicente, Campos ended José Mourinho’s 27-game unbeaten streak with FC Porto. In 2012, Campos became a scout and tactical analyst for Real Madrid C.F. under Mourinho.

Luis Campos has one of the largest scouting networks in the world and at Monaco oversaw the transfers of Radamel Falcao, João Moutinho, James Rodríguez, Fabinho, Anthony Martial, Ricardo Carvalho, Dimitar Berbatov, Bernardo Silva, Tiémoué Bakayoko, Geoffrey Kondogbia, and Thomas Lemar amongst others. He is also known to be very close to Kylian Mbappé when they were both at Monaco.

Ramos plays just 45 minutes for Spain and an update on Modric.

Sergio Ramos started and was substituted at half time in Spain’s world cup qualifier with Greece. Morata gave the hosts the lead in the first half and then Inigo Martinez conceded a penalty 11 minutes into the second. Spain pushed for a winner but Greece held firm. Ramos meanwhile had a good game and his substitution was planned to manage his game time.

Luka Modric meanwhile appears to be fine after suffering a horrendous tackle late in the game against Slovenia.

Los Blancos History: Who was Real Madrid’s first Pichichi winner?

The club’s website featured an article on Real Madrid’s first Pichichi winner. 88 years ago Manuel Olivares claimed this honor as the team’s top scorer thereby helping Real Madrid win their second league title on 26 March 1933. The striker netted 16 goals to claim the award. Alfredo Di Stéfano (5) is the player who has won the Pichichi award the most times for Real Madrid. Di Stéfano is closely followed by Puskas and Hugo Sánchez (4) and Cristiano Ronaldo (3).

There are penguins at the Bernabeu.

Madridistas were left in disbelief as PENGUINS were spotted wandering around the Bernabeu on Thursday. I have many questions. Where did they come from? Who do they belong to? Can they play on the ‘wings’? Nevermind, now that they are here lets welcome them officially.