Entitlement

I have never been a Real Madrid fan, but these days it is so much easier to dislike a club that despite all its great history and achievements, just feels entitled and bitter.

It comes down to the Balón d’or, a rather silly exercise in the subjective election of the “world’s best player” of football, a team sport… Vinicius Jr., and undoubtedly fantastic player did not get the title, which instead went to Rodri from Spain and Manchester City. Vinicius Jr., who has been a great speaker against racism in football and in Spanish society, felt dubbed and insinuated it was because of racism, while Real Madrid decided to boycott the Balón d’or ceremony, accusing it of manipulating the voting, an accusation that every day seems more common in politics when one loses, and has now also reached the world of football.

Petulant and arrogant behavior that symbolizes the times we live in: instead of congratulating someone, they act as if it is their right to win, and everything else is cheating and injustice. The worst part is that this attitude contributes nothing but minimizing trust in a society already lacking it, destroying faith in our relationships with people, and taking the attention away from the fact that Vinicius Jr. is indeed a fantastic player and that Real Madrid are indeed a great club.

They should be ashamed.

City's legendary Champions

 Manchester City managed to do what they have been trying to for years: win the Champions League. It was was not elegant, and they played a nervous and poor match despite being full favourites against Inter Milan, who with more precision could or should have scored. In the end Rodri's precise strike in one of the few good moments created by City gave them the victory.

A pity for the Italians, but seen overall, City are the best team in the world right now, particularly proven by their performances against Bayern Munich and Real Madrid earlier in the tournament. Guardiola was given time to forge a strong side of complete players, even though results were absent in the first years, and that is a lot of credit to the club's owners, who now see their team sweep aside all opposition, and become the first team to win the treble since Manchester United in 1999.

So truly a historical victory for a team that will go into history, and congratulations to its fans.

Manchester City champions

 Although in the end everything finished as one might have expected (City and Liverpool victories), the end of the Premier League ended with a high level of excitement, with the surprise always looming.

To be champions City needed a win at home against Aston Villa. But with 20 minutes elft Aston Villa were ahead 0-2, and there was a clear fear in the stadium (although Liverpool were at the time not winning). But goals by Rodri and Gundogan (who came in to make two) within a magic period of five minutes, put things straight and the title in Manchester.

Liverpool knew what was happening in Manchester, and that a victory would give them the title. But Wolverhampton were a hard nut to crack, and the Wolves went ahead already in the third minute. Liverpool pressed on an towards the end of the first half Sadio Mane equalized. Knowing the result in Manchester the Reds pressed on, but the goal did not come until the 84th minute by way of Mohammed Salah. But by this time City were already up, and even though Salah scored a third in the last minute, they hardly celebrated it as they knew it was but for nothing but the goal-stats.

Liverpool ends as runner-ups, but they have an FA Cup title, and next week they will be vying for the Champions League title in a clash of Titans against Real Madrid.