Wags Of Madrid: Putigol

Guti, or Puti, or whatever we may want to call him was born José María Gutiérrez Hernández and began his not-so-spectacular career for the Merengues as a forward, a striker, a target man for all intensive purposes, but he soon discovered that his calling in life was not to attack, to succeed Raul as a number 7 for Madrid, but to toil away further back, sometimes giving and sometimes receiving (nudge, nudge. . .), but always fabulously, showcasing his "talent" for hair, makeup and design, his skill on the pitch, but unfortunately his lack of smarts as well. On and off as it were.

There was always something a bit off about Guti; the fact that the Madrid papers characterized him as being shocked that his actress/singer girlfriend at that time was a transvestite, made all comers laugh with a knowing nod, thinking, 'oh well, that's Guti for you.' Just added to his legend as you would say.

Well, the story is a little more complicated than that. The girlfriend in question was actually noted cabaret singer Bibiana Fernandez, more commonly known by her stage name Bibi Andersen, than by her birth name Manuel. The Madrid papers made it into a comic farce, but Bibi does have an extensive resume and was in at least 3 of Pedro Alomodovar's movies in the 1990's. I must say that despite being of basketball height, the distinguished Bibi is well over 6 feet, she does exhude her femininity well, ignoring the large hands and the Adam's apple, so Puti (that aptly named male bimbo) should be excused in his gender confusion. More on that later.

Well, to illustrate Puti's character further (thanks to Sid Lowe for this quote in the Guardian), after a game against Malaga that was over-filled with his particular brand of whiny play, one-legged Uruguayan striker Dario Silva (of course, before he lost the leg) called our boy a "poof and a baby." Guti responded fittingly, "no comment. . .but I do have a wife and a baby."

Two for that matter, a girl named Zaira and a boy with the unfortunate name of Aitor, and he still he seems confused by those little pecadillos. He has also been married, since the early part of this century, to an almost double of his previous "girl"-friend, if almost mean lacking the former's height, wingspan, or genetic structure, in Arantxa de Benito, a presenter in the television genre that Spaniards lovingly call "telebasura" or tv-trash, who was once hypnotized on camera with a finger up her nose looking for loose change, and you can see why everyone was so surprised when the happy couple parted ways. Arantxa, holding back tears in a television interview afterwards was quoted as saying that while the separation was recent, there has always been "something" separating the two. Was it the nose-picking?

Thanks to those who asked for Guti. I'd say that all requests will be answered in full, but I have a schedule to keep and a format to follow. Who am I kidding? See you next time.

The sixth episode of Forza Futbol is now up. You can get it at Itunes or at PodBean.

Have a question or a comment? Send us an email at forza.futbol@yahoo.com

This week on Forza Futbol we discussed UEFA Cup Final. As well as the Coppa Italia Final.


We also took a look at Serie A Week 37. Games we highlighted are Atalanta - Inter, Cagliari - Roma and Lazio - Parma.

In Spain we headed to Mallorca - Valencia, Recreativo v Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid v Barcelona in round 35 of La Liga.


And as always we brought you the latest in transfer gossip and news.

Have something to say? Have a question, comment or opinion? Want more coverage of your team? Want to talk about players? Then email us at forza.futbol@yahoo.com

Forza Futbol is a multimedia creation between 3 friends from very different backgrounds who support very different teams. We met online in different forums and realized we lived close to each other, so the next step was rather than just blogging back and forth to each other we would start a podcast. We called it Forza Futbol.

Forza because it reminds us of Italian Soccer and the Azzurri's cry of Forza Azzurri after they won the World Cup, and of course Futbol because in Spain, as in many spanish-speaking, soccer mad countries the word can only be futbol.

Our purpose is to give a better lens into the other great leagues of Europe. We won't be skimping on England, but we'll always look at it with the thought of how it fits into the bigger picture, as we think that the best players and the game's greatest tacticians are trained in Spain and Italy.

My friends Elisa and Hannah are very knowledgeable, and very passionate about the sport, and I think we all contribute greatly to a podcast that will be getting better and better each week. I promise to do my best. Check us out at:

Sincerely,

Armando at: Forza Futbol

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