After a week when the triangle player in the Leipzig Concert Orchestra quit after a row with the conductor – saying “It was just one ting after another!” – Real Mallorca are “on the beach” for five weeks with budgie smugglers and flip flips being de rigeur attire for the next few weeks. Elsewhere the club’s sporting director Pablo Ortells faces a nightmare summer as he negotiates players’ renewals, departures and signings for the new season. That’s likely to start around the middle weekend in August. There’s a FIFA Club World Cup going on in the United States from June 14 to July 13 with 32 teams taking part. This heavily criticised but highly lucrative event means that domestic leagues could be changed causing congestion and of course player welfare could be at risk due to playing too many games without a break.
As for Real Mallorca’s pre-season plans, it looks likely they’ll have their training camp in the Austrian alps. The Central European climate, the facilities and the ease of being able to arrange friendlies against high-level opponents is a major factor.
Cyle Larin on his way out?
One player who’s unlikely to be in the pre-season mix is 30-year-old Canadian striker Cyle Larin. He’s informed his agent that his troubled time on the island is coming to an end and he wants to move on. However, his impending exit is complicated to say the least. The main stumbling block will be how Ortells works out Larin’s severance pay. He signed a five-year deal when he arrived two years ago and his salary is over 2 million euros net. He signed from Valladolid for around eight million euros and in that time he’s made 67 appearances scoring 10 goals. His apathetic body language and the fact he’s a total introvert both on and off the pitch, plus failing to learn Spanish, had become issues. Whatever happens Mallorca will take a huge financial hit as nobody wants to sign a striker who doesn’t score enough goals. Things came to a head against Getafe two weeks ago when, after he nodded in a late consolation goal, he gesticulated to the Ultras to keep quiet and get off his case. They replied “Larin vete ya” (go now). I’m sure a monetary agreement will be worked out and when a deal is done and his suitcases are packed, there’ll be a queue of Mallorquinistas ready to take him to the airport.
Other players who could be on the way out are Maffeo, Costa, one of the goalkeepers and possibly Copete on his way to Italy.
Christian Eriksen joining La Liga?
Last summer a story did the rounds that German legend Mats Hummels was interested in seeing out his career at Real Mallorca. The idea never came to fruition and Hummels signed for Rome. Twelve months later there’s another interesting breaking story. A local website carried news on Tuesday that Danish midfielder 33-year-old Christian Eriksen offered his services to Real Mallorca two months ago. He’s just left Manchester United and is keen to try his luck in La Liga and come and live on the island. The offer came through a lawyer (as did Hummels’) who brought the matter up when the season finished.
Three years ago Eriksen collapsed in a game against Finland. Doctors managed to revive him after his heart stopped and during a long recuperation he had a defibrillator valve fitted. Miraculously after making a comeback at Inter Milan he joined Brentford before moving on to Old Trafford where he played between 2022/25 making 73 appearances and scoring three goals. Known as a free kick expert, signing Eriksen under normal circumstances would be an impossible feat for a modest club like Real Mallorca. Maybe this is a “wind up” but what a coup that would be if he put pen to paper at Son Moix.
Mallorca coach Jagoba Arrasate faces a challenge that until now no one has been able to overcome in Mallorca: ending the curse of the Basque coaches. The Biscayan is the 10th Euskadi coach to sit on the RCD Mallorca bench – eight of the previous incumbents were sacked and one quit. Former Basque coaches at the club stretch from 1939 up to 2017 with ex player and captain Javier Olaizola (whose son plays for our B team). This is Arrasate’s first experience in a team from the southern part of the Spain, after spells at Real Sociedad, Numancia and Osasuna.
AND FINALLY, I see Britain’s favourite pub names of 2025 have been released. Some of the strangest and most mind-boggling contenders were The Moody Cow, The Hairy Lemon, Nobody Inn, The Honest Politician (yes, really!!!), Sir-loin of Beef, The Itchy Pig and The Thieving Landlord. Waddling into first place: The Drunken Duck!