After a week when on BBC Breakfast, viewers were issued with some tips on how to cope with the cold weather – one of the tips was “wear some warm clothes!” – Real Mallorca head to Madrid this weekend where they’ll play Rayo Vallecano (at the halfway point of the season) on Sunday at 2pm. The Madrid side are one place above us in the La Liga table on 19 points to Mallorca’s 18. Rayo are punching above their weight this season and will play Alaves in the last sixteen of the Copa del Rey. They also lie in an impressive 5th place in the League Phase table of the Conference League.
Mallorca have been really disappointing of late and watching them play has been bordering on football masochism! However, there was a crumb of comfort on Wednesday when news broke that reinforcements may be on the horizon. The club are interested in bringing in 22-year-old Colombian international right winger Yaser Asprilla (no relation to the ex Newcastle United player and gun-toting Tino Asprilla!) on loan from Girona until June. He’s played 14 times for them so far this season, starting in six. Asprilla came to Europe in 2022 when he joined Watford before moving to Girona in 2024 for a club record fee of 18 million euros.
Real Mallorca 2025/26
It’s hard to find positive things to say about Real Mallorca 2025/26. Last Sunday’s 1-2 defeat by Girona was a painful watch. Mallorca looked listless displaying their full range of weakness making their top flight status more precarious. The team only came to life in the final 15 minutes. Girona were superior in just about every position and our two centre backs, Raillo and Valjent, just weren’t quick enough to keep up with the jet-heeled Girona front line. Fans showed their frustrations as the boos and whistles echoed around a freezing cold Son Moix. It was a miracle we managed 16,011 spectators in such arctic conditions, and many of them left after the visitors went two up.
Top coach Pep Guardiola once said “If you have the ball the opponent can’t score.” Last Sunday only one team wanted it – Girona. In the first half they registered four shots, two of them on target and enjoyed 65% possession. In our case, it wasn’t enough to hardly see the ball, it was knowing what to do with it when we got it ! Players like Darder, Maffeo and Mojica had nightmares. With three late substitutions near the end our situation changed slightly. Despite a barrage of attacks and crosses into the box the best Mallorca could muster was a late Muriqi penalty to make the score look more respectable. Once again the big Kosovan, who’s scored 50% of Mallorca’s goals, was our best player and was the only positive player wearing red and black. He’s now the third leading goal scorer (Pichichi) with 10 in La Liga, behind Barcelona’s Ferran Torres (11) and M’bappe (18). Muriqi finished last Sunday’s game lying pole-axed on the pitch after a heavy collision with our ’keeper Leo Roman who had come up for the final corner kick.
Mallorquinista fans
Mallorca’s Basque coach Jagoba Arrasate is facing increasing scrutiny starting 2026 as he started 2025 with a defeat. The football us Mallorquinistas have been watching this season is rubbish (with the exception of a win away against Sevilla and a 3-1 against Elche) recently. Arrasate is either unable to find the right system or lacks the players to do so. The team are regressing instead of progressing.
Social media has shown how scathing some of the fans are. When the team is doing well, nobody says anything but if things aren’t going well they start looking for someone to blame and Arrasate is taking a lot of flak. Several social media rants have said “I don’t feel like going to the Son Moix to watch negative football from Real Mallorca.”
A couple of wins and a couple of winter transfer window signings may be just the tonic that’s required. Arrasate has struggled to get a tune from a squad that has many limitations. The contract he signed last year runs until June 2027 and it includes a release clause. The club have the right to cancel a third year as long as they pay Arrasate the full amount for the second year.
Dani Rodriguez
Ex Mallorca player Dani Rodriguez is on the verge of signing for Getafe for the rest of this season. Part of the deal Dani signed on his departure from the island was that if he signed for another La Liga team he wouldn’t be allowed to play for them against Mallorca. We’re not due to play Getafe in Madrid until May.
LATE NEWS: More drama for Mallorca, both Raillo and Morlanes will miss Sunday’s game through injury. Raillo has a dislocated collar bone and is expected to be out for at least a month.
AND FINALLY, for anyone questioning the legality of attacking Venezuela and abducting their leader, remember we’re talking about a highly corrupt leader with a criminal past, who used his high office to make billions for himself and has manipulated elections to stay in power, has used his military against his own citizens, has protected his corrupt friends and punished his political enemies. President Maduro of Venezuela did some pretty bad things too!!