Babylon Idiomas Resources

Miguel Indurain is undoubtedly Spain’s greatest cyclist and one of the country’s top sporting heroes. Born in Villava, Navarre in 1964, Indurain’s greatest achievements came in the world’s greatest cycle race, the Tour de France. Between 1991 and 1995 Indurain reigned supreme in the tour taking five victories in a row in becoming the first man to achieve this remarkable feat.

Indurain turned pro in 1985 and entered the Tour de France starting a run of eleven straight years entering cycling’s prestige event. Although he didn’t finish the 1985 and 86 tours, he established himself as an excellent team rider for the Banesto and played a big part in the 1988 win of Spanish compatriot Pedro Delgado. In fact many claimed that Indurain could have bettered his 10 th place finish in 1990 or even gone on to win, but Indurain refused to eclipse his team captain Delgado. The break through finally came in 1991 when Banesto built the team around Indurain as he started his dominance of the tour, over the next few years it became an extremely familiar site to see Indurain in the coveted yellow jersey. As a cyclist Indurain did most of his damage during time trials, his powerful 6ft 2 frame earned him the nickname “Big Mig” and often left his competitors without an answer. Famously on a stage in Luxembourg in 1994, he won a time trial by a massive three minutes, powerful riding like this would give Idurain the advantage he needed over his rivals. Indurain would then ride defensively in the mountain stages, relying on his strong team to cover any threatening breaks. Critics lambasted this style as “boring” but lovers of the sport also remember some great duels with Greg Lamond in 1991 and also with the late, great Italian, Marco Pantani whose prowess in the mountain stages was second to none.

As mentioned earlier in the article, Indurain was a supreme natural athlete; his resting heart beat was 28 bpm, less than half the normal rate of an average, healthy human. Scientists hypothesized that Indurain’s heart was up to 50% larger than a normal person and his huge lungs were capable of scooping up a massive eight litres of air. This freakish physical attributes led many rivals and admirers to claim there was some “inhuman” element to Indurain, further added to by his quiet nature and seemingly unshakable composure on the bike.

Away from the Tour de France, Indurain also has a big list of honours ; he twice won the “Giro d’Italia” in 1992 and 93 (both years that he won the Tour as well), in 1994 he set the world hour record covering just over 53.010 km (32.96 miles) in the 60 minutes and at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 he picked up a gold medal for his country in the individual time trial event.

Liked and respected by his fellow pros, Indurain was a humble and unassuming gentleman who never boasted of his greatness even when people tried to compare him to the great Tour winners of the past. English cyclist and time trial expert Chris Boardman famously said of Indurain: “Indurain makes me sick because he’s actually a really nice guy. You can’t actually work yourself up, there’s no hate involved, no anger. He’s a really nice bloke and a true champion.”

In his retirement Idurain has still kept an active role within cycling as a member of the UCI Professional Cycling Council and he’s also on Spain’s Olympic Committee. Despite his tour record being eclipsed by American Lance Armstrong’s seven in a row in recent years, Indurain’s legacy as one of cycling’s greats will live on, not only in the heart’s of Spaniards, but of sports fans the world over.

On an emotional Saturday afternoon in Benalmadena, Frank Evans, more affectionately, (if a bit unoriginally), known as “El Ingles” to his Spanish followers, retired from the ring after nearly four decades as a matador. Evan’s has been forced to hang up his “muleta” due to serious arthritis in his knee which will require major surgery to fix. Evan’s was carried triumphantly around the ring by his fellow matadors who also cut the “coleta” (the ponytail) as tradition dictates them to do for a retiring matador.

For Evan’s it was the culmination of a long career that really started when the son of a butcher from Salford read the autobiography of British matador Vincent Hitchcock. Hitchcock had fought in Spain in the 50’s and 60’s and Evan’s managed to track him down and under his advice went to try his luck in Spain to train as a matador. After seeing his first bullfight in Grenada, Evan’s was captivated by the artistry and style of the matadors. He enrolled at the bullfighting school in Valencia and displayed a natural aptitude, forcing his previously dubious instructor to take note. From that point on Frank worked hard and his career was on the move although it’s not easy to get fights at first, in fact, until audiences are willing to pay to see you, matadors are expected to pay to fight.

The highlight of his career according to Evan’s was when he was given the title of “matador de toros” in 1991, the only Englishman ever to be awarded this accolade. El Ingles has fought around 175 fights and has plied his trade in every major bullring except the celebrated “Las Ventas” in Madrid. Evan’s also believes that the fact that he is English has worked in his favour – his Spanish audience have always viewed him as something of a novelty and this has meant that he’s been offered more fights than a Spanish matador of the same level. Despite Evan’s slightly depreciating view of his own skills he’s extremely popular in Spain and has earned the respect of many in the bullfighting world. Critic Juan Miguel Nunez recently wrote of him: “”He looks like the perfect English gentlemen but he moves and thinks like a true torero; he has the scent of a torero…”

There have also been tough times for Evans, a bullfighter’s career is usually not without serious injury at some stage and in 1984 he suffered a severe goring which damaged his prostate, left him with internal bleeding and cost him a 10 day stint in hospital. Frank has also come in for a tough time from animal rights campaigners and he’s received numerous threats to both him and his family, he has even had activists protesting outside of his Salford home.

Now at age 67, the father of two is looking to pursue other business interests after captivating audiences in France, Venezuela and Spain. Amongst the expressive, showman-like world of matadors, Evan’s has always been the odd one out, his British reserve having to be suppressed in order to play the crowd, but as the bell tolls on his career as a matador, respect must be given to this man who has grafted and made a name for himself in an alien world. We salute you, El Ingles.

Founded in 1902, Real Madrid Club de Fútbol has been one of the superpowers in European football since the middle of the last century. Indeed, they were awarded the honour of “Best club of the 20 th century by FIFA, an award for their huge domestic success and also for their domination of Europe. Real Madrid was not always named thus and the “Real” (or “Royal”) part of the name was only added after the club received a blessing from King Alfonso XIII in 1920. The club play in a white strip and they are commonly known as “Los Merengues” (the whites). The club’s home is at the Santiago Bernebéu stadium in Madrid, it is one of Europe’s finest and holds over 80,000 fans and is now also a huge tourist attraction in the city. Since the start of the Spanish national league in 1928, Madrid have never been relegated from the top division.

The start of the clubs success really came under the Franco regime – he saw the club as an excellent propaganda vehicle and poured resource into the club to try to make them a dominating force in Spain and beyond. It is from this point that one of the greatest rivalries in football was born with Catalan club Barcelona. The suppression of the Catalan language and culture by Franco’s regime immediately put Barcelona in opposition to Madrid, the team who seemed to represent the dictator’s regime and some unsavoury match fixing incidents further soured relationships and made the rivalry all the more fierce.

Probably Madrid’s finest period came between 1955 and 1960 when they won an unprecedented five European Cup’s in a row. This really put the club on the map as a dominant force in Europe and no club has matched the feat since. Probably the finest display came in the 1960 final where they demolished their German opposition, Eintracht Frankfurt, 7-3. Real have since gone on to win the trophy four more times and this total of 9 is better than any other team. Amongst Real Madrid’s domestic honours are a massive 29 league titles and 17 Spanish cup triumphs, equally unrivalled by any team in Spain.

In recent years Madrid have been extremely successful also, famed for the having the resource to buy the most high profile signings, it has seemed like no price tag is too big for Real Madrid. In 2000 they brought in Luis Figo from rivals Barcelona for €60million, the following year saw French wonder Zinedine Zidane arrive from Juventus for a world record fee of €71million. Further high profile signings were made in 2002 and 2003 when Ronaldo and England captain David Beckham were brought in by the club to further strengthen the squad of stars. This policy of buying the best players has earned Real Madrid the new nickname of “Los Galacticos”.

The current team again is a collection of the world’s most prized footabll players with the likes of Kaká, Christian Ronaldo and Benzema who were all bought for astronomical sums in the summer of 2009 when Florentino Peréz (one of Spain’s wealthiest inhabitants) returned to restore Real Madrid to what he considers its rightful place.

FC Barcelona – often known simply as Barca, is one of the most famous football clubs in the world. Based, as their name suggests, in the Catalonian city of Barcelona in Spain, it was founded in 1899.

Well known for its passionate fans, the culés, its motto is “El Barca es mes que un club” meaning Barca is more than a club, the team play in one of the football world’s most iconic stadium – Camp Nou, which opened in 1957 and holds an amazing 98,000 fans.

FC Barcelona has a long running and notorious rivalry with Spain’s other most famous club, Real Madrid. This rivalry stems from the opposing views of the two clubs during the Spanish Civil War. The Madrid based club was a representative for Castillian Spanish, the Spanish state of Castille and as Franco himself supported them, represented fascism.

As Barcelona was, and still is, the capital of the strongly independent area of Catalonia, the rivalry runs deep. During these times, the Catalan flag and language were banned by Franco, so the football club became the only outlet for Catalan nationalism. Things came to a head when, in 1941, Barca were told to lose a match to Madrid on purpose. In protest to this, they went on to let Real Madrid win the game 11-1, and Barcelona’s goalkeeper was banned for life.

In 1973, Dutch scoring legend Johan Cruyff signed to Barcelona for a then record amount equivalent to just under £1million (a huge amount of money in those days). His style of play was fast and smart and the fans loved him. After he helped FC Barcelona beat Real Madrid 5-0 in their own stadium and winning the league, the club had over 70,000 members, making it the then, most powerful club in the world.

Other than the Intercontinental Cup, FC Barcelona has won all known football trophies, and is one of only four clubs to have won the three major European trophies. It is also the only team to have taken part in European club competitions since 1955, and has never been relegated from the Spanish First Division since its inception in 1928.

FC Barcelona is also famous for refusing to allow until recently a sponsors logo to appear on their football jerseys unlike other clubs. This refusal is a symbol of Catalonia’s independence – even the mark of the kits manufacturer on the shirts is looked down upon. In 2005, Barcelona, accepted the logo of the main Catalan television channel and a fellow symbol of Catalonia, on the left arm of the shirts. Since the 2006-2007 season, FC Barcelona is paying UNICEF € 2 million per year to display the logo of this institution.

The Barcelona fans are often referred to as “culés”. This is a derivative of the Catalan word “cul” – which means, literally, backside. Although it sounds derogatory, the name comes from the early 20 th century, where, while seated in the highest parts of the football ground stands, those outside could see the backsides of the fans. Even after the ground was restructured, the nickname has stuck with the fans.

Barca has attracted the biggest names in football to come and play for them with legends such as Johan Cruyff, Gary Lineker, Rivaldo, Ronaldhino, Stoitchkov, Laudrup, Figo and Ronaldo, all gracing the hallowed turf of the Camp Nou. The current generation of home grown stars has already made history by winning all there is to win in the 2009 season: the Leage, the Spanish Cup, The Champion’s League, the Spanish Super Cup, the European Super Cup and the World Cup for Clubs. No other football club has ever achieved this.

Under the guidance of Pep Guardiolà, the home grown stars Xaví, Iniesta and Messi have reached new heights for one of the most famous football clubs.

Football in Spain, much as it is in England, is undoubtedly the national game with a passion for the sport that can only be matched in a handful of countries around the world. Spain’s “La Liga” (Spain’s premier football league for those not in the know) is regarded in many circles as the best in Europe and the international team have been tipped to bring home some silverware from a major tournament for a long time (I might add they’ve yet to oblige the nation). Taking all of this into account football is clearly tied in heavily with Spain’s cultural fabric. To watch a game and to gauge the day to day news and debate is to sample something of Spain and its people firsthand. There aren’t many social areas which football doesn’t permeate; whether it’s digesting the sports pages in a café, catching a game in a bar or kids in the streets and playgrounds emulating the feats of their heroes.

The two most famous clubs are Barcelona and Real Madrid, the latter having been regarded as the best team in the world for the last few years. With squads reading like a who’s who of international football the clubs boast some of the best players from around the globe. Football in Spain is a big deal and the stadia, which constitute major tourist sites in both cities, certainly reflect this passion; the Nou Camp stadium in Barcelona has a capacity of 100,000 whilst the Bernabeu stadium in Madrid boasts a capacity of close to 90,000 and both are amongst the largest in the world. Visitors to the cities should certainly consider as tour of the stadiums for a chance to see just how big they are. Both also offer excellent museums offering insight into the two clubs glittering histories and also a chance to see the changing rooms – where most Spanish schoolboys dream of sitting one day.

As you could imagine, the rivalry between Barcelona and Real is massive and when they play the match is simply known in Spain as “El Derby”, it is the biggest sporting fixture in the Spanish calendar and is quite possibly the most fiercely contested (and supported) domestic match in all of football. There’s even more to play for this season as Barcelona ended Madrid’s dominance by claiming “La Liga” ( Spain’s premier football league for those not in the know) for the first time since 1999. Madrid will be looking for revenge this season and have brought in some exciting new players to try and reignite their title challenge.

One excellent indicator of how big football is in Spain (and particularly at these two clubs), is just how much pressure is heaped on players and managers alike by supporters and the media when results don’t go their way. Club boards can be exceedingly fickle and the way in which club presidents are actually elected by the season ticket holders, gives the fans a lot more power as those running the club have, to some extent, to respond to their demands and whims to keep their popularity. For these reasons La Liga is probably the toughest European league to manage in and most clubs have an alarmingly high turnover of head coaches. It’s certainly a cut-throat business and an area in which the Spaniards are partisan, extremely passionate and always have an opinion.