Ten day break for Real Mallorca with European hopes

After last week’s results, Mallorca go into the break in seventh place on their own with 40 points. There’s no question their Basque coach Jagoba Arrasate has rejuvenated the team as we now have gone six matches unbeaten – two wins and four draws – which comes on the back of a major wobble (five consecutive defeats) at the start of the year. Having those 40 points with 10 games left to play is no mean feat as our final points tally last season was 40 when we finished in 15th position. Without getting too carried away, there’s no reason why we can’t allow ourselves to dream of a European place next season, if we manage to increase the number of final points. We’re now free of the relegation shackles with two months of La Liga games to play. It won’t be an easy run-in with teams like Celta Vigo and Real Sociedad snapping at our heels, but we have a chance to see the team return to European competition, something which hasn’t happened for the past 20 years.

Our first home game after the break is against Celta Vigo (one point behind us) on Saturday, April 5 at 6.30pm. Now that is what I call a proper six-pointer! Our best record after 28 league games goes back to season 1998/99 when under Argentinian Hector Cuper we were in sixth place and finished the campaign in third with 66 points. Under Cuper’s management we reached the 1998 Copa del Rey final and the last ever Cup Winners Cup final in 1999, beating the mighty Chelsea in a memorable semifinal.

What makes Mallorca’s achievements all the more remarkable is that there are extreme financial limitations regarding La Liga’s salary caps which are in place to ensure clubs stay in business. The salary limit is the maximum amount each club can spend each year. It varies between clubs according to their vastly different revenue levels and the overall health of their books. Salary caps work by ensuring clubs that have got themselves in a financial pickle (like Barcelona and Valencia are now) and have built up large debts will be unable to spend “big” as their spending limits are slashed even if their annual revenues are higher than other clubs. Real Mallorca are in the minnows league when it comes to financial clout. Out of the 20 clubs in La Liga we’re 12th with a salary cap of 61 million euros. It’s remarkable that a club like us can punch above our weight again and prepare this Summer for our fifth consecutive term in one of the top leagues in world club football.

Our American owners have been exceptional in their nine-year tenure and have completely transformed the stadium and the infrastructure. Like all football clubs at a certain level, we need to bring in players capable of doing “the business,” and with a limited budget our director of football, Pablo Ortells, and his team need to search high and low for the necessary “bargains.” Some of Ortells’ signings have been excellent and some have been awful. It’s difficult to find a happy medium but there will be money available in the Summer to replace the two or three who are likely to move on.

After last Saturday’s drama-filled ending to the game against Espanyol, I had to lie down in a darkened room when I got home! Our main striker 30-year-old Kosovan Vedat Muriqi had a game both he and us fans won’t forget for a long time as he went from hell to heaven in 45 minutes. To say that Muriqi played a leading role in the outcome would be something of an understatement. He went on to open the scoring early in the second half. Unfortunately his backward header came at the wrong end and he scored an own goal...oops ! An outing to forget then took another turn for the worse, 10 minutes later when he was guilty of fluffing his lines from the penalty spot. But yet when all was said and done, he managed to prove himself to be the match winner with a late goal.

In frankly incredible scenes after seeing team-mate Abdon Prats also miss from 12 yards, a VAR check culminated in the penalty being retaken after a couple of Espanyol players had encroached into the penalty area. That decision enraged the visitors because it came a full seven minutes after Abdon had missed the target. Muriqi slotted in the winner, in the process making history as he equalled the same scenario as Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos had in May 2018 when Real Madrid beat Sevilla 3-2.

AND FINALLY, on a sad note this week. Mallorquinistas of a certain age were saddened to hear the loss of one of their former players, Andrija Delibasic, who tragically passed away at the young age of 43 after battling a cancerous brain tumour. “Deli” arrived at Mallorca during the 2003/04 season and played 19 games, scoring seven goals. He never really pulled up any trees in Palma and he became a “journeyman” player, turning out for Benfica, Braga, AEK Athens and Real Sociedad. There’s no doubt the highlight of his career was scoring for his country Montenegro in the last minute against England (under Fabio Capello) in a 2-2 draw at Wembley in 2012. Fellow Mallorca fans Charles Nutter and Billy Morris plus yours truly went on a Mallorca pre-season trip to Kossen, Austria in 2003 and we were in and around the Mallorca squad for several days. Descansa en paz, Deli, y gracias por los buenos recuerdos.