Aragones Calls Up Krkic & Albelda.

By: chris | February 2nd, 2008

Luis Aragones, ever one to deviate from the path of normalcy, has decided to make a couple interesting call ups for the friendly against France in the near future. The most exciting is that of Bojan Krkic, the 6 year old Serbo-Spanish wundertoddler from Barcelona (alright, he’s 17 but he doesn’t look a day over 12). Since he’s got a Spanish mommy and a Serbian daddy, he’s eligible for both teams. Since he’s one of the best young talents in the world, both teams want him. But he’s been playing for Spanish youth teams, and Luis would like to wrap him up with a cap before he gets any smart ideas and flies to the Balkans. Makes sense - not that he doesn’t deserve it anyway. Kid’s a stud.

The other callup is David Albelda, who has been a Spanish national team mainstay, but isn’t allowed out of the stands for Ronald Koeman and Valencia CF. So despite spendings weekends on his couch, eating Cheetos and watching Valencia lose all the same without him, he gets the call.

I think Ronnie K has the best take on this situation:

Los Che boss, Ronald Koeman, thus speculated that the midfielder would be an asset to the squad “because he is certainly very fresh.”

However, he wouldn’t be drawn any further on the topic, saying, “It’s a matter for the Spain boss. I respect the decision for the sake of his career, but I don’t share this opinion.”

Really? Never woulda noticed by the nonrole David plays in your team.

For me, the real loser here is the United States, who get to watch a 17 year old Bojan Krkic hurried to get a senior cap for one of the best national teams in the world (that is, until the quarterfinals), while possibly the best player in Spain not playing in Madrid or Barcelona is stuck twiddling his thumbs waiting for Roberto Donadoni to give him a call. And he’s 21. A few months ago, when Donadoni was calling up the children for a South Africa friendly, Giuseppe Rossi didn’t even get a look despite taking La Liga by storm. The Azzurri clearly are not worried about any US involvement. Ouch.