The bullfight world and the soccer world have been colliding a lot lately.
Take for instance this Rangers FC tifo in a recent semi-final UEFA Europa League match in Glasgow. Modeled after a bullfight cartel it is a throwback from 1972 when Rangers won the "European Cup Winners' Cup" beating Dynamo Moscow in Barcelona.
Now Rangers will play against Frankfurt on Wednesday May 18th for the Europa League title in of all places Seville Spain... known as the "bullfighting cradle of the world."
Ole!
Which leads us to Real Betis and the recent Copa del Rey.
Real Betis won this year's Copa del Rey by defeating Valencia. It is only the 4th major title for the little club (with a lot of fans) from Seville.
Winning La Liga only once, (in 1935) they have won the Copa del Rey three times. 1977, 2005, and 2022.
Their captain, Joaquin Sanchez Rodriguez, is a huge fan of the bullfight. And upon winning the Copa promptly celebrated by taking his personalized capote and performed some very nicely done veronicas to the delight of the crowd. (or was it before the game began? I don't know, I didn't see the game live, only the highlights.)
And to make things even more perfect, who happened to be in the stands that night to see it all?..... The great Curro Romero, one of the greatest bullfighters of all time.
And finally, to top it all off, to bring the worlds together and collide them even further, on the 30th of April, in Sevilla, bullfighter Antonio Ferrera invited Joaquin into the bullring to accept a dedication of the bull he was about to fight.
(Bullfighters will almost always dedicate to someone the bull they are about to fight. Sometimes they will dedicate the bull to the crowd in general which always gets a big ovation.)
It did cause a little bit of controversy since it is customary that once a bullfight begins only toreros and bullring personnel are allowed on the sand. But the crowd didn't seem to care, they loved it.
So, an interesting past couple of weeks for sure. It's been fun to watch these worlds collide, it doesn't happen too often. Actually, it may have never happened as much as it has these past couple of weeks.
Ole! again.
