Mourinho's Notebook - An Amish Hazard, An Angry Henry & A Fat Rafa
Welcome To The Didier Drogba Foundation Charity Ball
No need to leave your hat at the door.
Following their near-Premier League clinching win over Manchester United, a bunch of Chelsea players celebrated by attending Didier Drogba’s charity ball, all to raise money and exposure for his foundation.
Players such as Eden Hazard, Petr Cech, Branislav Ivanovic, John Terry and Nemanja Matic all made their way to celebrate with Didier, as well as former Premier Leaguers such as Thierry Henry, Edgar Davids and Louis Saha. The Didier Drogba Foundation “aims to provide financial and material support in both health and education to the African people”. Wonderful cause.
Reportedly they raised an incredible £400,000 for the foundation, so great work there. But even more incredible was Eden Hazard bringing back the Amish mystique, not to mention the lad on the dancefloor. Anyone’d think he just scored the winner against United or something.
Thierry vs Chicharito
When Javier Hernandez scored the 88th minute goal that sent Real Madrid to the Champions League semi finals over local rivals Atletico, you could hardly blame him for celebrating. This is a guy who fell hard out of favour at Manchester United last season, getting flipped on loan to the European champions in what seemed like a dream deal… only to barely play all season. But with Karim Benzema out injured, Hernandez got the start in one of the biggest games of the campaign, and although he spurned a few chances earlier, he could hardly miss when Ronaldo teed one up for him.
Except that someone did blame him for celebrating. Arsenal legend Thierry Henry, in his punditry for Sky Sports UK, doing just that.
"He had a couple of chances in the game before that but I can tell you he can thank Ronaldo tonight. I know he went on to celebrate alone and everything but he can thank Ronaldo. For me, he has to. That is, for me, Ronaldo's goal. What I don't like after it is it seems like he won the World Cup [based on his celebration]. Turn around and celebrate with Ronaldo."
Seems a bit harsh, the lad just scored the winner in a Champions League quarter final against a huge rival. Fair within his right to let it out a bit, surely? Of course, there might be something else to those comments…
Fat Rafa
Rafael Benitez has made a fine career as an often in demand manager, and as usually happens every year or two, he’s getting talked up for basically any open job again. West Ham get mentioned, Manchester City get mentioned… but one Italain club isn’t quite so keen.
Massimo Ferrero, President of Serie A side Sampdoria, was asked about the prospect of his own manager, Sinisa Mihajlovic, being scouted to replace Benitez at Napoli when Rafa’s contract expires at the end of the season.
“You all say [Mihajlovic] is leaving but I know nothing about it, there is no news. If he did go, though, I know who I’d replace him with: not Paulo Sousa, but Lino Banfi. Or I could take Benítez, but I’d have to take him to a dietitian first.”
Oooh! Burn!
And if you were wondering who Lino Banfi is, he’s a popular comedic actor in Italy. According to Wikipedia, he was “one of the most well-known actors in Italian ‘sexy comedies’ in the 1970s”, reaching the apex of his fame in the 80s. Banfi is famous for his distinctive Bari accent. Here he is as a bumbling dog sitter:
Ferrera’s a film producer in Italy, so he’s probably all over that appointment.
Most Popular Premier League Clubs in New Zealand
According to twitter data anyway:
- Liverpool – 18.46%
- Arsenal – 18.18%
- Manchester United – 14.71%
- Chelsea – 13.365
- Manchester City – 7.27%
- Tottenham – 6.41%
- West Ham – 3.39%
Here’s the full thang: