Djeneba at Real Madrid

The most fun  news I have had for days came when my MaliMali assistant Djeneba called me today from Spain. She was invited by Jose Manuel Herraiz, the film maker who made a charming little documentary about her when she was seventeen year old, and who came here in April to make a sequel to this first prizewinning documentary. (look up 'Djeneba' in blogsearch above) He filmed everything that was happening and one shot was of  Djeneba and me in the MaliMali studio cutting out fabric and talking football. She is a real aficionado, and can talk knowledgeably about football for hours. Malians are all football mad, and they follow in particular Spanish football and are firmly divided into Barcelona fans and Real Madrid fans.

The  culmination of this documentary sequel was to be Djeneba’s visit to Spain. I knew Jose Manuel  was trying to get her to meet the players from Real Madrid, her favourite team. And here they are! Above Djeneba with Ronaldo and below with Benzema,no less.

She arrived at the  club cool as a cucumber apparently. She takes everything in her stride, and although she has never been abroad before, the idea of meeting her heroes did not faze her in the slightest. I think she was very happy about it of course, but she accepted it calmly as if it was some sort of birth right that she should meet Ronaldo and Benzema if she happened to be passing through Madrid... When she arrived to meet the team she did not see Ronaldo with the other players. She was told he was at home resting because of an injury.  ‘But I have brought him a present!’ she said disappointedly. And she must have charmed the whole team to such an extent that they called Ronaldo who came over especially to meet her after all! I must remember to ask her what the present was that she brought him...He signed one of his T-shirts and gave to her. And then she started talking football with them and no doubt gave them several tips about how to improve their playing strategy!