Ivan Helguera? Hmm …
By: Cesar | July 20th, 2007
Our beloved signed defender Ivan Helguera from Real Madrid today. Judging by the picture, he looks sort of confused about it.
He’s been capped 47 times for Spain, won three league titles and two European Cups after joining Real from Espanyol in 1999.
He was overlooked at the start of last season by coach Fabio Capello, who reversed his decision to bring him back in. He started 21 games during their victorious league campaign.
But the arrivals of new Madrid coach Bernd Schuster as replacement for Capello, and two new centre-backs in the shape of Christoph Metzelder and Pepe in the transfer season, left Helguera surplus to requirements.
I don’t know … this guy epitomizes everything about Real Madrid for me. He stood for Los Merengues. He’s hard-nosed, he’s intense. He’s a decent enough player. I guess I’m ok with it. But first Morientes, then Quique, now Helguera … who is next? Raul? Ronaldo? Zidane??
Are we turning into a Madrid retirement home?
Here’s Helguera’s player profile from uefa.com:
A midfield player who subsequently found his calling in central defence, Iván Helguera is the rugged rock upon which the Real Madrid CF back line is built.
Club
Having gradually worked his way up the lower leagues in Spain, Helguera had played only 14 games for second division Albacete Balompié when he was signed by Serie A side AS Roma. Stardom seemed to beckon, but the Santander-born player lasted only a season in Italy before working his way back to form as a sweeper with RCD Espanyol. Seen as an expensive gamble when John Toshack brought him to Madrid from Espanyol in 1999 for €7.6m, Helguera’s first season at the Santiago Bernabéu was a glorious one as Madrid defeated Valencia CF in the UEFA Champions League final, a feat repeated in 2001/02. A winner of two titles with Madrid, he has remained a vital part of the team although his 2005/06 campaign was disrupted by injury.National team
Capped for the first time against Italy in 1998, Helguera played in all of his country’s matches at UEFA EURO 2000™ and the 2002 FIFA World Cup as Spain were eliminated at the quarter-final stage in both. Helguera featured in all three of Spain’s games at UEFA EURO 2004™ but after winning his 47th cap in the opening 2006 World Cup qualifier against Bosnia-Herzegovina Helguera was dropped by new coach Luis Aragonés and missed out on the finals in Germany.
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Comments
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*sigh*… don’t know what to say… Helguera… We’ve replaced Roberto Ayala with Ivan Helguera… If someone told me this one year ago I think I’d have died laughing, now I could barely hold back the tears. Ok, so I’m exaggerating a little but seriously, we could have done better than this. How did the summer start with rumours of Milito, Andrade and Chivu and end with Ivan Helguera??
Posted from
United States
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Not bad as long as it was a free transfer, and he had accepted a lowered salary of about 1.5-1.8 ME per season. Albiol and Alexis will definitely learn something from his experience.
I never liked the player (may be because he was a Madridista), but what made me sympathize with him is, at the beginning of last season, they suddenly took the shirt number 6 off from him to Diarra without his acceptance and gave him the shirt number 21, and sent him to train with the youth team. These acts were performed to push him to leave. Instead, he worked so hard and even surpassed Cannavaro, and as a result managed to return to the starting eleven. Now, after the end of that season, and obviously Madrid doesn’t want to pay his high salary for the end of his contract, they nicely allowed him to leave for free. He didn’t leave for Turkey or Qatar for money; the man wants to win something, so he decided to join Valencia at a humble salary. I guess fans should welcome this worior.
Posted from
Jordan -
Are we turning into a Madrid retirement home?
Or you could say that Real are turning into your feeder club.
Seriously, though, Helguera’s not past it, and they were fools to let Morientes go anyway. Financially, you guys have been smart.
On the other hand, I do wonder if Valencia will be making big signing before the transfer window closes.
Posted from
Australia -
Finding the Helguera transfer quite hard to understand. Looks lime back up seeing as David Navarro has made the switch to Mallorca and Del Horno hopefully leaving ( no good having a player in the squad that is not in Quique’s plans ) possibly the other way to Madrid to fill their left back void? Maybe not.
As for other matters, it is the Emirates Cup next week and I will be attending Day 1 and seeing the game against Inter. A few rivalries renewed after the punch up at the Mestalla in February. Is everyone expecting Quique to bring down the strongest squad available? Looking forward in particular to Mata and Sunny pulling on the Valencia shirt. Hopefully a good impression is made by all the team against some of Europe’s other top sides, to show that Valencia are real contenders in both La Liga and the Champions League this term.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Finding the Helguera transfer quite hard to understand. Looks lime back up seeing as David Navarro has made the switch to Mallorca and Del Horno hopefully leaving ( no good having a player in the squad that is not in Quique’s plans ) possibly the other way to Madrid to fill their left back void? Maybe not.
As for other matters, it is the Emirates Cup next week and I will be attending Day 1 and seeing the game against Inter. A few rivalries renewed after the punch up at the Mestalla in February. Is everyone expecting Quique to bring down the strongest squad available? Looking forward in particular to Mata and Sunny pulling on the Valencia shirt. Hopefully a good impression is made by all the team against some of Europe’s other top sides, to show that Valencia are real contenders in both La Liga and the Champions League this term. .
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Sorry I have posted about ten comments on that. Would not accept it and I received a message saying my messages would not receive a “second chance”??
Posted from
United Kingdom -
I think that he’ll be a good…mmm (teacher?¿?¿ for Albiol and Alexis,they are very youngs.
Posted from
United States -
George, good point … let’s see what he does here. Looks like he really wanted to be here and that’s always a good sign right?
Posted from
United States -
personally i think he is a solid transefer.. we got him on a free transfer .. he is strong center back with experience and that is what Valencia need right now somebody that knows the way the game is played by top tier strikers and wont fall for their tricks like Albiol and Alexis did all of last season. Dont get me wrong they are solid defenders but they still lack the experience. Im looking forward to seeing how this pans out
Posted from
Canada
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