Open Thread: 25 May 2022

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 lx or NeRObutBlanco.

Not until the Communicado!!

Even then he needs to kick a ball in the royal white for me to believe anything.

UEFA Open Media Day.

Real Madrid City hosted the UEFA Open Media Day on Tuesday ahead of the Champions League final. Some 250 professionals from 108 media outlets across the globe attended the event in the build-up to the final between Real Madrid and Liverpool in Paris. Here are some highlights from the event.

Real Madrid is world’s most valuable and strongest football brand

According to the Brand Finance Football 50 2022 report, Real Madrid is the world’s most valuable football brand for a fourth consecutive year. Our club’s brand value has increased to €1.5 billion, placing it ahead of Manchester City (€1.3bn) and Barcelona (€1.3bn) in the standings. Read more about this report on the club’s website.

OTD: Inspiration from the Past - Remembering La Decima.

It’s exactly eight years since Real Madrid finally got their hands on La Decima after an incredible Champions League final triumph over Atletico Madrid in Lisbon. It was the club’s first Champions League trophy since Zinedine Zidane’s stunning volley beat Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow in 2002. After years of falling short in the semi-finals under Jose Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti delivered a trophy that would kickstart a golden era in Real Madrid’s history.

There were several subplots as the whole of Madrid headed to Lisbon as the Copa del Rey winners faced Diego Simeone’s LaLiga Santander champions at the Estadio da Luz. Khedira instead of Xabi Alonso who was suspended, Casillas’ error, Isco and Marcelo substitutions, Di Maria running riot, Bale spurning chances and then 92.48.

Thank you Sergio Ramos. Once that goal went in, a white tsunami reigned down on Atletico as Bale, Marcelo and Ronaldo (from the spot) put in 3 more goals. That’s all she wrote.