Hi, everyone!
It feels like a long time since Tottenham’s men’s team played, which made me shocked to discover that it’s only been 11 days since the win over Norwich.
Ramble of the Day
I will cap off this series of football quotes of the year with two awards, one for today and one for tomorrow. Today’s award is one of special distinction, an attempt to honor a quote machine. Finalists for the award include Inter Miami as an organization and Megan Rapinoe in a solo effort, both popping up three times over the course of this series. They put in some serious work (in very different ways) to get here, and I applaud them for it. If there is one ultimate quote machine of 2021, though, the award for special distinction can go nowhere else but to El Chiringuito.
I have already written an appreciation post for El Chiringuito, so those bases are covered. What I will add, though, is that El Chiringuito’s ability to come up with sharable videos at such a high rate is remarkable. Here’s a recent video singling out Barcelona’s Clément Lenglet for daring to smile after Barcelona was knocked out of the Champions League.
A traumatised Jota Jordi speaks to camera to explain how Clement Lenglet should be forced to walk back to Barcelona from Munich. pic.twitter.com/9byxBa8vod
— El Chiringuito in English (@ElChiringuitoEN) December 9, 2021
It is easy content for El Chiringuito, somehow being both a tired bit and a perfectly enjoyable exaggeration. This is a show that knows the very specific niche it carved out for itself, and cannot stop delivering. Even if the Lenglet video is a new version of the viral Eden Hazard video from May, there is plenty of creativity at El Chiringuito that is based entirely in making fun of football.
Juanma Rodríguez brought not one, but TWO, props to troll Barcelona fans with tonight.
— El Chiringuito in English (@ElChiringuitoEN) November 24, 2021
He's just taken things to a whole new level, and Lobo Carrasco can't handle it. pic.twitter.com/GwdUvprGIp
The show is a full embrace of football’s inherent silliness, and in a way very few both have the ability to execute and perfect. A sport as ridiculous as football deserves a show like El Chiringuito to constantly demonstrate its weirdness. There has been no shortage of enjoyable clips from El Chiringuito in 2021, so much so that it would have otherwise clogged the recap of quotes of the year. The show needed its own spotlight, and its own special distinction.
tl;dr: The award of special distinction, honoring the ultimate quote machine of 2021, goes to El Chiringuito!
Stay informed, read this: Thalia Beaty on the career of US women’s rugby pioneer Kathy Flores, who died in October aged 66 following a battle with cancer for the Associated Press
Links of the Day
Argentina international Sergio Agüero retired after being diagnosed with a cardiac arrhythmia.
Burnley-Watford was postponed because of a COVID-19 outbreak at Watford.
Real Madrid’s Marcelo and Luka Modrić tested positive for COVID-19.
Barclays signed a new deal to sponsor both the FA WSL and women’s Championship.
OL Reign will move back to Seattle from Tacoma, and will play at Lumen Field beginning next season.
Clubs paid $500m in agents’ fees this year, up from $497m in 2020.
A longer read: Suzanne Wrack interviews Chelsea’s Jessie Fleming on evolving as a player and her growing role at the club after winning Olympic gold with Canada for the Guardian
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