Atletico prepared to call goodbye to Vicente Calderon
FAREWELL CALDERÓN: Next year, a track that now stands on a shores of a Manzanares stream in southern Madrid, will be razed to a ground. PHOTO COURTESY: ATLETICO MADRID/ TWITTER
MADRID: Atletico Madrid’s fabulous Vicente Calderon track will shortly be history: unhappy news for supporters of Real Madrid’s rivals though not so for locals who wish a community will urge once loud fans are gone.
This weekend spells a finish for a ageing structure that for over 50 years has housed Atletico — not as obvious abroad as a world-famous Real Madrid notwithstanding fielding players like French star Antoine Griezmann though with a outrageous following in a Spanish capital.
Fans will watch Spain’s Copa del Rey final between Barcelona and Alaves on Saturday and a free compare on Sunday.
Next year, a track that now stands on a shores of a Manzanares stream in southern Madrid, surrounded by blocks of flats and inexpensive cafeterias, will be razed to a ground.
“I’ve been a member given a 2001-2002 season, when a Atletico was in second division,” says Oscar Fernandez, 23, station nearby a track in Madrid’s Imperial district.
Wearing a red and white shirt of a bar that has given risen behind to dizzying heights, winning a La Liga tip multiplication in 2014 and reaching Champions League finals in 2014 and 2016, Fernandez says he lives in Rome though returned specifically to see a final games during a Vicente Calderon. The track “is partial of my life,” he says.
From subsequent season, Atletico — that finished third in La Liga this year — will play on a other side of a Spanish capital, during a track called a Wanda Metropolitano. Still in construction, it has a ability for 70,000 people, 15,000 some-more than a Calderon.
But fans are hugely trustworthy to a ragged stadium, underneath that passes a ring-road that circles Madrid, where Atletico played for a initial time on Oct 2, 1966.
Javier Fischer, 30, is so sentimental that he has indifferent 3 track seats to take divided as a souvenir, one of them in memory of his father who died a year ago. Last Sunday, he was there for Atletico’s final La Liga diversion in a Calderon — “the saddest day ever here,” he says, notwithstanding his team’s 3-1 feat over Athletic Bilbao.
Article source: https://tribune.com.pk/story/1419868/atletico-ready-wave-goodbye-vicente-calderon/