After a week when the “Anorak of 2025” award in the UK, by the “Dullman’s Club” to people with niche and mundane hobbies, went to World Conker Champion John Burkett from Northampton – previous winners were a guy who photographed potholes and a calendar maker who featured roundabouts – Real Mallorca face fourth-placed Atletico Madrid at 2pm on Sunday (January 25) in their intimidating 70,000 capacity Riyadh Air Metropolitano stadium.
“Atleti” are having an indifferent campaign and look like they’ll struggle to compete for more than third place this season. Their volatile coach Diego Simeone had his 700th game in charge last weekend but somehow his team just can’t seem to get it together on match day. Ex Real Mallorca president/owner Mateu Alemany from Andratx is now Atletico’s director of football and his first major signing looks to be ex Mallorca, South Korean, midfielder Kang In Lee from PSG.
Real Mallorca achieved a crucial 3-2 win in Palma against Athletic Club Bilbao last Saturday and the result brought more relief than joy. It allowed Mallorca to breathe more easily in their fight for survival. However, the three points didn’t dispel the doubts about our performance. Our defence was a disaster and if it hadn’t been for goalkeeper Leo Roman’s heroics we wouldn’t have won. It’s totally unacceptable to concede an equaliser three minutes later every time you score. We conceded too much in defence against Bilbao, who failed to capitalise on numerous chances.
Vedat Muriqi, Mallorca’s Kosovan striker, played an absolute blinder last Saturday. Not only did he score a hat-trick, something no Real Mallorca striker has achieved since Dani Güiza back in 2008, he also distributed the ball brilliantly, won impossible duels and cleared the ball away in his own penalty area on several occasions. Not surprisingly, with Muriqi second top goalscorer on 14 in La Liga behind Kylian Mbappe on 19, some Big Boys have allegedly been sniffing around and Turkish giants Fenerbahce (where local boy Marco Asensio now plays) are taking a keen interest in goings on. Muriqi played in Turkey for more than six seasons. He has Turkish nationality as well as Albanian and Kosovan and is something of an idol on the Asian side of Istanbul.
In 2023 Muriqi was very clear in expressing his intentions to fulfil his contract at Real Mallorca. Any club that wants him must pay the full release clause for his services, of around 50 million euros. Muriqi’s contract lasts until 2029. Mallorca fans must hope that their idol doesn’t even catch a cold as he’s scored 58% of the team’s goals. Muriqi is no longer just our only attacking focal point, he’s also one of the greatest figures in the club’s recent history. That’s something that will be etched on us Mallorquinistas’ memories for a long time.
On the transfer front, Mallorca have signed a “one for the future” player in French Congolese winger Justin Kalumba. The 21-year-old has a full agreement with the club coming here from French Ligue 1 side Angers (in western France). Kalumba has six caps for the French Under 20 national team and is known for his speed and dribbling skills. Mallorca have beaten English clubs who were monitoring the player.
Kalumba’s signing will by no means close the door to new arrivals. Rumours at Colombian winger Asprilla coming from Girona on loan have been squashed. They asked Mallorca for two million euros for the loan, a sum Mallorca decided was too much money for the four remaining months of this season, especially when having to cover another million euros of salary. Names now being mentioned are Benjamin Dominguez, 22-year-old Argentine attacker from Serie A side Bologna, and the Belgian international forward Cyril Ngonge from Napoli.
DEBATE OVER SPANISH REFEREES
Another week and another refereeing controversy in La Liga – this, of course, isn’t news as it happens every weekend. La Liga has perhaps the worst referees in Europe’s top five leagues. Last weekend Real Madrid and Barcelona were seething about biased officiating. Both clubs accused referees of being biased against them as there were mistakes and problems in both the big two’s games. It’s time for a solution but the problem is no-one trusts anyone in Spanish football. There’s even been talk about bringing in English referees to take charge at La Liga games. That wouldn’t solve much, they’re just as bad!
Last Saturday in Son Moix the match-day referee Guzman Mansilla (in only his second La Liga game) and the VAR official Milla Albeniz gifted us two hand-ball penalties which took an eternity to work out. A week before Mallorca were robbed when the referee awarded Rayo a surreal hand-ball penalty which the home side converted to win 2-1. The VAR thing last Saturday favoured us big time but it took far too long to come to a decision.
AND FINALLY, a friend of mine hosted a family dinner the other day and those invited were encouraged to bring all their children. Throughout the meal a four-year-old girl stared at her uncle across the table. He checked his tie, felt for food on his face, patted his hair (what was left of it!) in place, but nothing stopped the little girl from staring at him. He finally gave in and asked the little girl “Why do you keep staring at me ?” Everyone at the table went quiet awaiting her response. The little girl replied “I just want to see how you drink like a fish!”