The banner behind the goal at the south end of the Santiago Bernabeu stadium read: “Wanted: A worthwhile rival to make a decent derby.”
The jibe was aimed at Atletico Madrid and on that November day 12 years ago, it felt especially cruel. Real Madrid were beating their neighbours 4-1. The banner spoke a truth. At that stage, Atletico had to rewind all the way back to the previous century to locate a Liga derby against Real where their opponents had finished as the losing team.
A month after the banner was brought into the Bernabeu, its collage pieces reassembled by giggling Madridistas once they had taken their seats, Atletico Madrid sacked a head coach for the 15th time in a dozen years and brought in their ex-player Diego Simeone. He ended his first full season in charge with a derby win over Real Madrid at the Bernabeu that also happened to be the Spanish Cup final.
Since then Atletico have barely looked backed. Barely, because although the biggest Madrid derbies of Simeone’s long era as the most transformative figure in Atletico’s modern history were lost, the fact that they were both Champions League finals – Real won in extra-time, having trailed for most of the 90 minutes in 2014 in Lisbon; Real were victors on penalties in Milan in 2016 – speaks to how a flakey club, unworthy of sharing the same heavyweight space with Real Madrid, have under Simeone joined Europe’s superclub circle. There have been two Liga titles, in 2014 and 2021, to break the duopoly on Real and Barcelona on that prize.
Yet as Simeone approaches his 40th Madrid derby as boss of Atletico, Real visiting the Metropolitano stadium on Sunday, the second club of the Spanish capital are starting to hear cruel taunts again. And some are coming from a little too close to home.
The costliest investment Atletico have made in a player under Simeone is the €127 million they committed on the then teenaged Joao Felix in 2019. On Tuesday night he scored twice in the Champions League. Trouble is, he was playing for Barcelona, making his second European debut of the calendar year for a club Atletico have loaned him to.
If his six months at Chelsea, who he joined in January, were flat, his fit at Barca, where he arrived last month, so far looks promising. Good enough that Joao Felix was on Wednesday giving interviews to different media explaining bluntly why he wants to be out of Atletico, and most of all, away from Simeone.
The tension between the Portuguese playmaker and Simeone had been no secret, but the criticism is fierce. “I wasn’t happy there. I didn’t adapt to the club’s ideas and the coach’s ideas,” Joao Felix told Mundo Deportivo, the Spanish newspaper. “But I always did my best, and obviously there were some good times, too.”
His three-and-a-half years in an Atletico jersey included a Liga title and 34 goals from his 131 matches, but the frustrations of an ambitious, impatient young footballer with what he perceived as Simeone’s crabby, counter-attacking style have left an angry residue. It is hard to see Joao Felix reunited with his parent club at the end of his loan if Simeone is still the coach there.
After nearly 12 years in the job, his departure would be seismic; jibes against the cagey gameplan, like Joao Felix’s, are nothing new either. Simeone is a combative, tough coach but also one who inspires a rare loyalty. Atletico under him are the club to which footballers return: Antoine Griezmann, accused of betrayal when he joined Barcelona, is back there, one in a line of footballers who moved on, sometimes in fractious circumstances, but then missed the place and came ‘home’, also see: Diego Costa, Yannick Carrasco and Saul Niguez.
The rupture with Joao Felix looks too grave to imagine him joining that list.
The season has started patchily. While Joao Felix was knitting together the sort of pass-and-move football he prefers and contributing his brace of goals to Barcelona’s 5-0 win over Royal Antwerp, Atletico were in Rome throwing away a lead against Lazio.
Simeone’s men, painstakingly drilled to absorb attacks and anticipate set-piece threats, saw a 1-0 lead over Lazio turned into a 1-1 draw in stoppage time in their Champions League opener, the scorer of Lazio’s goal was their goalkeeper Ivan Provedel, who had come up for an attacking corner.
On the back of last weekend’s 3-0 Liga loss to Valencia, it was another bruise to Atletico pride. The local landscape is not looking too flattering either, with Real top of the table, on a maximum 15 points, with Atletico in seventh.
The form of Jude Bellingham, who on Wednesday against Union Berlin scored his sixth goal in as many games since joining Real, is ominous, and can’t help but put a critical lens on Atletico’s transfer strategy. Like Joao Felix, Bellingham was signed at 19 years old for a €100m-plus fee. Unlike Joao Felix, Bellingham will have a say in the outcome of this weekend’s derby.
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Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
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- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
The Greatest Royal Rumble card as it stands
50-man Royal Rumble
Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match
Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe
SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos
Casket match The Undertaker v Chris Jericho
John Cena v Triple H
Matches to be announced
WWE World Heavyweight Championship, Raw Tag Team Championship, United States Championship and the Cruiserweight Championship are all due to be defended
SPECS
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Gothia Cup 2025
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116 pitches
76 nations
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15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
PROFILE OF STARZPLAY
Date started: 2014
Founders: Maaz Sheikh, Danny Bates
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment/Streaming Video On Demand
Number of employees: 125
Investors/Investment amount: $125 million. Major investors include Starz/Lionsgate, State Street, SEQ and Delta Partners
Living in...
This article is part of a guide on where to live in the UAE. Our reporters will profile some of the country’s most desirable districts, provide an estimate of rental prices and introduce you to some of the residents who call each area home.
A Long Way Home by Peter Carey
Faber & Faber
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Lexus LX700h specs
Engine: 3.4-litre twin-turbo V6 plus supplementary electric motor
Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 790Nm from 2,000-3,600rpm
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh590,000
Three ways to limit your social media use
Clinical psychologist, Dr Saliha Afridi at The Lighthouse Arabia suggests three easy things you can do every day to cut back on the time you spend online.
1. Put the social media app in a folder on the second or third screen of your phone so it has to remain a conscious decision to open, rather than something your fingers gravitate towards without consideration.
2. Schedule a time to use social media instead of consistently throughout the day. I recommend setting aside certain times of the day or week when you upload pictures or share information.
3. Take a mental snapshot rather than a photo on your phone. Instead of sharing it with your social world, try to absorb the moment, connect with your feeling, experience the moment with all five of your senses. You will have a memory of that moment more vividly and for far longer than if you take a picture of it.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
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On sale: Now
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Director: Anurag Kashyap
Cast: Abhishek Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu, Vicky Kaushal
Rating: 3.5/5
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Match info
Uefa Nations League Group B:
England v Spain, Saturday, 11.45pm (UAE)
Company profile
Name: GiftBag.ae
Based: Dubai
Founded: 2011
Number of employees: 4
Sector: E-commerce
Funding: Self-funded to date
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: HyperSpace
Started: 2020
Founders: Alexander Heller, Rama Allen and Desi Gonzalez
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Entertainment
Number of staff: 210
Investment raised: $75 million from investors including Galaxy Interactive, Riyadh Season, Sega Ventures and Apis Venture Partners
Company: Instabug
Founded: 2013
Based: Egypt, Cairo
Sector: IT
Employees: 100
Stage: Series A
Investors: Flat6Labs, Accel, Y Combinator and angel investors
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
RESULTS
6.30pm Maiden (TB) Dh82.500 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Meshakel, Royston Ffrench (jockey), Salem bin Ghadayer (trainer)
7.05pm Handicap (TB) Dh87,500 (D) 1,400m
Winner Gervais, Connor Beasley, Ali Rashid Al Raihe.
7.40pm Handicap (TB) Dh92,500 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner Global Heat, Pat Cosgrave, Saeed bin Suroor.
8.15pm Handicap (TB) Dh105,000 (D) 1,900m
Winner Firnas, Royston Ffrench, Salem bin Ghadayer.
8.50pm UAE 2000 Guineas Trial (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (D) 1,600m
Winner Rebel’s Romance, William Buick, Charlie Appleby
9.25pm Dubai Trophy (TB) Conditions Dh183,650 (T) 1,200m
Winner Topper Bill, Richard Mullen, Satish Seemar
10pm Handicap (TB) Dh102,500 (T) 1,400m
Winner Wasim, Mickael Barzalona, Ismail Mohammed.
