Goodbye and good luck to the Dutch duo of Royston Drenthe and Rafael Van der Vaart, who will both be playing their football with different sides this season.

Drenthe will be turning out for la liga new boys Hercules and Van der Vaart will be putting his talent to the test with Tottenham Hotspur in the Premiership.

Royston Drenthe (on loan to Hercules)

via www.realmadrid.com

He may not have won the critics over during his time so far at Real Madrid, but the Dutch starlet’s commitment cannot be questioned. Royston – or Roya, as he likes to be known by his friends - came to Madrid in 2007 with a lot of expectation on his shoulders; after winning the European U21 Championships with Holland and scooping the title of Player of the Tournament. Drenthe scored on his official debut with Real Madrid in a Spanish supercup clash with Sevilla, though unfortunately the whites went on to lose the game. And losing was something which Royston always took to heart. He is a huge character and whenever any of my colleagues or I had an interview or encounter with him at the training ground, we would always come back  with a funny anecdote.

I’m sure on the two occasions Real Madrid come face to face with his new side Hercules this season, Drenthe will be his usual bubbly self and more than happy to give us a few words afterwards in the mixed zone.

I can guarantee his new coach Esteban Vigo that the friendly Dutchman will take no time to acquaint himself with his new teammates - who of course include David Trezeguet.  

Rafael Van der Vaart (signed for Tottenham Hotspur)

The classy playmaker will be swapping the white shirt of Madrid for the ‘lilywhite’ of Tottenham Hotspur this season after the Premiership club secured his services on the eleventh hour of Deadline Day. Van der Vaart will be an asset to the side after proving to be a key player for Real Madrid last season - slotting in perfectly to replace the injured Kaka. And although Van der Vaart scored his fair share of goals during his stint in the Spanish capital, none will be remembered by Madridistas as fondly as his matchwinner against Sevilla back in March last season. http://footballbarbie.footballunited.com/2010/03/15/another-classic-comeback/

The 2008/2009 season had barely begun when Rafa scored a hat-trick in matchday four’s 7-1 smashing of Sporting Gijon. The midfielder’s contribution helped make it a very special night at the Bernabeu and his brilliant backheel was the pick of the bunch.

Van der Vaart arrives in London on the back of  a successful and unbeaten preseason run with Real Madrid, in which he scored three goals- a free kick and two penalties, which tells you something about his reputation as a set-piece specialist.

The 27-year old  will not only be bringing his playmaking skills to north London, but a wealth of experience too, having already played in the top flight of three of European football’s leagues with Ajax, Hamburg and Real Madrid. 

The stunning and successful Sylvie Van der Vaart

And yes boys, he’ll also be bringing his beautiful wife with him- the modern day mum and successful career woman, Sylvie.

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After the Mallorca game, my RMTV colleague interviewed me as part of his regular la liga stint on SSN radio.  Here’s the clip below:

SSNR Mon Aug 30th 2010

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Mourinho’s Madrid opened the 2010/2011 campaign with a goalless draw against Mallorca at the Iberostar Stadium in Mallorca.  San Moix is never an easy place to pick up points and the Whites can be proud they came away with the one that they did – especially considering last season the islanders only dropped a total of 11 points at home.

Five of the six new signings featured and found themselves up against a well-organised Mallorca team who are likely to prove problematic for many sides this season.

An international break has now hit the calendar, but Madrid will be back in action with a home tie against Osasuna on September 12th. The Bernabeu is the best backdrop for the boys  in their quest to notch up their first win of the new campaign.

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Tomorrow the wait will finally be over as Real Madrid will face Mallorca at the Iberostar Stadium for Matchday One of the 2010/2011 Primera Liga campaign. Mourinho’s men are unbeaten in the preseason and will be hoping to maintain their winning ways on Sunday night.

As you can imagine, this past week has been pretty manic as the squad have been making their final preparations for the season opener and Real Madrid TV’s programmes have returned for the coming campaign.

Here’s a little of what’s been going on over the last seven days:

Santiago Bernabeu Trophy

On Tuesday Real Madrid played their final preseason friendly against Club Atletico Penarol in the annual edition of the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy.  This year’s event marked the 50th anniversary of the Intercontinental Cup. Madrid met Uruguayan side Penarol (then known as Penarol de Montevideo) in the 1960 final; so who better to invite to mark the occasion than their rivals from half a century ago?

Back then the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas and Santamaria helped the Whites take the title with a 5-1 win and their modern day counterparts managed to scoop some more silverware for the club in Tuesday’s game, which they won 2-0 thanks to a fabulous individual effort by Angel Di Maria- who twisted and turned past two of his rivals to slot home, and Rafael Van der Vaart who converted a penalty to seal the local side’s victory.

It was Mourinho’s first home match as Madrid coach and his first game back at the Bernabeu since his historic Champions League win with Inter back in May. And once again the Portuguese manager was able to lead his side to success.

Di Maria may have been most of the fans’ hero on the night, but mine was this little fella. I interviewed him ahead of the game and he had plenty to say on topics such as Mourinho, the new signings and the season ahead. However he was suddenly short for words when I gave him a kiss to thank him for his brilliant soundbites!

A little man with a huge character that brought a smile to many of our faces before the game had even kicked off

Extra Time

The first Extra Time of the campaign was filmed on Thursday and I was joined by Pete Jenson (The Independent), Filippo Ricci (Gazetta dello Sport) and Maria Bretones (Cadena Ser) to discuss all the events of the summer, the season ahead and the league opener against Mallorca.

There were a lot of laughs on the show and almost some tears too as we looked back on Spain’s stunning World Cup win in South Africa. Maria was inside Soccer City to see Iker and co lift the trophy and some of her amazing anecdotes almost made her and me cry!

With Dan Thomas heading off for a new life in New York, Extra Time will now be shared between myself and one of our new presenters, Andy May. Andy will be hosting on a Monday and I will present the Thursday edition.

Join us over on our new look Extra Time facebook group:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=139252360740&ref=ts

And for more pictures from the last week, join me on my own professional page:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Kay-Murray/449440385042?ref=ts

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The live news is back for the new season and I presented the first show of the 2010/2011 campaign on Monday evening.

There’s not long to go now until Real Madrid’s first game of the season against Mallorca at the Ono Estadi. If you’d like to hear my prediction for that one, check out www.footballpubcast.co.uk. This week I bring the boys all the background behind the game as their guest predictor.

This evening I’ll be pitchside for the Santiago Bernabeu Trophy as Club Penarol pay a visit. It’s Jose Mourinho’s first game at the famous stadium as Madrid coach and I’ll be tweeting throughout (@footballbarbie1).

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I had the absolute pleasure of interviewing former Porto and Chelsea defender, Ricardo Carvalho today. The stopper is Real Madrid’s fifth signing of the summer and will bring a wealth of experience to the backline at the Bernabeu.

As most of my friends know, when it comes to football, I’m particularly fond of defenders and the Portuguese centre-half  is one of my favourites.  So as you can imagine, I’m really happy that he has signed for Madrid and it is brilliant to know that he is a really good person off the pitch too.

You can catch my interview with him on Real Madrid TV or our sister channel’s version on the club website: www.realmadrid.com

The picture tells the story: He was telling me he felt his English had really suffered in the last three months while he has been away from the UK as he has not been speaking it at all. That said he was more than happy to do the interview and his English was very good.

City boy: While we were getting mic-ed up, Carvalho was telling me about how he and his wife loved living in London, central London that is. He revealed the outskirts proved a little boring for them!

You lived where?!: This was his  reaction when I told him I was from Middlesbrough. He has been there after all!

It’s rude to point!: I was actually telling our new signing how easily he would pick Spanish up with him being a native Portuguese speaker. He is very keen to start learning.

I messed up in my intro and had to start again. Ricardo made fun of me for it!

I have to say that I was really impressed with Ricardo’s open manner before, during and after the interview. He was very warm and friendly.

During the interview he revealed that coming to Madrid fulfills a lifelong ambition and he also spoke about how keen he is to prove himself here. Ricardo knows it’s going to be difficult but he knows better than anyone else in the current side just what is expected from Mourinho and how high the coach’s standards are.

If his performances for Madrid are anything like those he put in for Chelsea, I for one cannot wait to see him turning out in white. I’m sure I am not alone in thinking this, so it’s a good job us Madridistas won’t have to wait too long as tomorrow (Friday 21:00 CET) he could feature in the friendly against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena as he has been named in Mourinho’s squad to make the trip. And he is not the only potential Whites debutante as Sami Khedira is also expected to play his first minutes for his new side.

Good Luck to both of them on their debuts and for the season ahead

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Party Time: The fruits of my labour all here in this blog!

It’s hard to believe (for me at least), but Football Barbie is exactly one year old today. It’s been a jam-packed year and in that time the blog has grown so much thanks to you the readers and my fantastic hosts Football United. I’ll be continuing to bring you all the best of the behind the scenes action and day to day happenings in my job as a female sports journalist and hope that this year there will be even more success all round.

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Beyond The Pitch – Mourinho’s A-Team.

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via www.realmadrid.com

Real Madrid waved goodbye to their preseason trip to Los Angeles in style with a 3-2 win over LA Galaxy, their second victory this week after beating Mexican side Club America by the same scoreline last Wednesday.

In true Madrid style the boys came from behind to win both games and there has been plenty of promise on display throughout the preseason, not least from the likes of new signings Pedro Leon and Sergio Canales.

Higuain and Cristiano Ronaldo seem to have picked up where they left off and with Mourinho’s managerial magic you sense the coming campaign is going to be tasty.

The squad arrive back in Madrid this evening (Sunday), though World Cup champions Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Alvaro Arbeloa and Xabi Alonso will not be with them as the quartet have been called upon by Spain coach Vicente del Bosque  to play in Wednesday’s friendly with Mexico at the Aztec Stadium in Mexico City.

Later this week, Real Madrid will be on their travels again as they head north to Germany to take on Bayern Munich in a friendly at the Allianz Arena on Friday (13th August), then just a few days later they will be in Belgium to face Standard Liege (17th August).

After those two games, the Madridistas will be staying on Spanish soil, but taking a trip south to play newly promoted Hercules in the Alicante Trophy (Saturday 21st August), then it’s back to the capital for the annual Santiago Bernabeu trophy (Tuesday 24th August). This year Uruguayan side Penarol will pay a visit to the famous stadium to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Intercontinental Cup. The two sides faced off in the White’s Coliseum in the first edition of the competiton, a game the home side won 5-1.

The Santiago Bernabeu Trophy will be Jose Mourinho’s first game at the famous ground as manager of Real Madrid. The last time he was in the dugout was the 22nd May 2010, as he led Inter Milan to Champions League glory, so it comes as no surprise that the stadium holds a special place in his heart.

I’ll be there for all the action and as always I’ll be bringing you all the happenings on the night to this very blog…..and of course via Twitter (footballbarbie1).

Then five days later la liga is back and it couldn’t come a moment sooner.

First stop: Ono Estadi,Mallorca. Final Destination: Title Number 32

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It’s a year to the day since football lost one of its favourite sons.

We will never forget you Bobby. Forever in our hearts.

Here are my memories of the man: http://footballbarbie.footballunited.com/?s=bobby+robson

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