After midnight, through the open doors of the Spanish national team bus parked in the basement of the Allianz Arena, the notes of Wild fillythe favourite song of the footballers at the Euro Cup, the soundtrack also of the joy of qualifying for the final in Berlin next Sunday (21.00, La1). The music had been reverberating for a few minutes in the arcades, up to the French vehicle, parked just ten metres to their left, in the same silence in which their footballers left the mixed zone. Then Isabel Aaiún’s song reached the chorus and the Spanish players raised their voices a notch and marked the rhythm of the verses by banging on the moons: “I am a wild filly / that goes on a trip / to the unknown”.
It was shortly after Kylian Mbappé, who disappeared far from the parking area, and Antoine Griezmann, who boarded the bus from Spain, where he has many acquaintances, for a few minutes, had left the stadium. They had also been the only French footballers who had stopped to talk to the journalists. When the Atlético de Madrid player went down the steps and finally headed towards his own, the music session began at full volume on the bus from Spain, with the doors open next to the one Griezmann boarded.
It had been filling up with the trickle of footballers and members of the coaching staff who slipped behind the scenes of the mixed zone and were greeted at the entrance to the venue by the hugs of the president of the federation, Pedro Rocha; the president of the Spanish Association of International Footballers, Fernando Giner; and Paco Noguera.
“Like a wild filly / that in the waves / does not lose its senses,” echoed the song, while members of the national team’s security team asked the stadium employees to close the doors of the venue to make it difficult to follow the celebration from the press area.
Ferran Torres and Ousmane Dembélé, former teammates at Barcelona, left chatting quietly. They spent a few seconds together between the two vehicles before hugging each other and heading off, one to the party and the other to the wake. Behind them, Pedri was limping, his left knee, which Kroos had injured, immobilised. He briefly hugged Dembélé and climbed the steps with some difficulty.
Until finally Unai Simón appeared, the furthest behind, whose usual seriousness stood out even more in contrast with the small disco that filtered into the parking lot. stayfrom Quevedo, was escaping towards the French bus. Mbappé also crossed back to his, and the doors of the Spanish vehicle, which was still not moving, were already closed. Nor did the French one, which was finally the first to start, at 0.35. The one from Luis de la Fuente’s team gave him a minute and a half advantage and then he set off towards his hotel in Unterschleissheim, a small town of about 25,000 inhabitants north of Munich, which can be reached from the stadium in a comfortable 15-minute journey without having to cross the city. On to dinner, the rest of the party, and the rest and recovery necessary for Sunday’s final. “I am a wild filly / that goes on a journey / to the unknown.”
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