satta matka

Maybe it was the dawn of a new and modern Spain ready at last to jettison a painful past or perhaps it was just a passing fiesta where everyone fervently embraced each other in brotherly love as on New Year’s Eve, toasting La Roja with ample Rioja, before waking up hungover the next morning with unforgiven feuds and remembered rivalries.

summed up the conundrum quite Delhi Bazaar Satta King succinctly in its headline ‘Visca España’ – ‘visca’ being the Catalan version of ‘viva’.

And Cruyff, despite his assimilated Senyera DNA – he named his son Jordi after all, does not foresee or even desire that Catalunya should become FIFA-recognised or an independent nation any time soon. He speaks (ropey) Castillian Spanish rather than Catalan, yet remains proud to take charge of what are essentially glorified friendlies once a season in his adopted homeland.

With Spain defeating Holland in the World Cup final only a few months ago, harvesting the fruit of the seeds he had planted as a player with Barcelona in the 1970s, perhaps this is not the best time to be questioning Cruyff’s cultural leanings with any certainty anyway.

The Basque country also has a national team in action over Christmas, hosting Venezuela tomorrow night in Bilbao. Heavily dependent on the historically Basque club sides of Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad, their squad also boasts Spanish World Cup-winner Xabi Alonso of Real Madrid.

Euskadi are no slouches either, having claimed the scalps of a host of FIFA nations across the last twenty years including Uruguay, Ghana, Russia, Serbia, Venezuela, Nigeria, Bolivia and Morocco. Famous former players from the Basque country include the great goalkeeper Andoni Zubizarreta, still Spain’s record cap-winner, and the flying French World Cup-winning left back Bixente Lizarazu.

And the tapestry does not end there: Andalucia, Aragon, Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria, Extremadura, Galicia, Murcia, Navarre and the Region of Valencia have all played friendlies against FIFA-recognised nations during the past decade.