All posts by Carmen Gomaro

Carmen Gomaro - leading international news and investigative reporter. Worked at various media outlets in Spain, Argentina and Colombia, including Diario de Cádiz, CNN+, Telemadrid and EFE.
INTERNATIONAL

Peru: The dictator in the street and the president, at minimum levels

Leave a comment

Without serving 25 years of sentence for crimes against humanity and against what was established by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR), President Dina Boluarte has risked part of her fragile political capital by giving her approval to the release of worst dictator in the history of Peru. The photograph of Alberto Fujimori, between his children Keiko and Kenji, with a mask and the oxygen bottle at his feet, went around the world in minutes and shook Peruvian society as soon as he left the Barbadillo prison in Lima.

Hours later the photo was repeated but inside the Fujimori home, between smiles and in a very different setting.. Megaphone in hand, the two brothers appeared before the Press and in front of their followers to thank “the authorities who today allow my father to be home,” Keiko congratulated.. The former presidential candidate also faces a trial for money laundering and a request for a sentence, made by the Prosecutor's Office, of 30 years in prison.

As if Peru wanted to concentrate its contemporary political history in a few hours, Fujimori's freedom coincided with the first anniversary of the coup leader Pedro Castillo, a fellow prisoner in Barbadillo, with the celebration of Boluarte's first year in power and with the temporary suspension for six months from the attorney general, Patricia Benavides. The National Board of Justice was inexorable with those accused of creating an influence peddling network.

Benavides accused the president before Congress, at the end of November, of being responsible for homicide for 50 deaths during the protests a year ago.. For Boluarte to emerge unscathed again from these accusations and maintain the parliamentary majority, he needs the support of Congress, where Fujimorism (Fuerza Popular) has 22 of the 130 deputies.

Polls confirm the worst figures in decades: Castillo's successor barely has the support of 12% of Peruvians. His year at the head of the country has traveled between accusations and scandals, a permanent crisis that could never be translated into early elections due to the connivance of different political forces.

Fujimori's release from prison has reopened wounds that have never been closed, which are also added to those caused during the repression after the fall of Castillo. The protests were spread across different areas of the country, especially the same Andes that rose up against Boluarte.. “This democracy is no longer democracy; Dilma murders, the people repudiate you!” chanted the protesters in Huancavelica.

INTERNATIONAL

The father (communist hero and traitor) of President Xi Jinping

Leave a comment

WHO. He is the father of the current Chinese president and it is 110 years since his birth. He was one of Mao Zedong's comrades and a big shot in the first generation of Chinese communist leaders.

THAT. Regarding such an important date, the Chinese state channel CCTV is broadcasting a documentary about his figure, also an opportunity to better understand the past of the omnipresent Chinese leader and his loved ones.

The Chinese state channel CCTV has been broadcasting on a loop for a few days a six-part documentary about the father of the omnipresent President Xi Jinping. It is 110 years since the birth of Xi Zhongxun, one of Mao Zedong's comrades and big shot of the first generation of Chinese communist leaders.. The anniversary excuse was perfect to reunite the Xi family around the figure of the late patriarch.

The documentary, titled Chicheng, which translated from Mandarin means Total Devotion, reviews the revolutionary career of Xi Sr., who led several guerrillas in the north until he became, after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (1949), vice prime minister.. What the film forgets to highlight is that, just over a decade later, at the gates of the Cultural Revolution, Xi Zhongxun was accused of treason..

He went from revolutionary hero to being a plague. He ended up in prison and his family, publicly humiliated, also suffered the consequences.. Xi Jinping, like many other young people from wealthy families in big cities, was not spared from forced labor in the countryside.. And many reports suggest that one of his sisters committed suicide.

After only six months of digging wells in a village in northern China, Xi Jinping fled the countryside and sought refuge again in Beijing.. But the young rebel did not count on the fact that his own mother, instead of opening the doors of the house for him, would report him to the authorities.. She, Qi Xin, did not want her son to become a lifelong deserter.

“The entire Xi family suffered unfair persecution by Mao's Red Guard. The current president was a teenager when his family separated and he had to fend for himself. Before being sent to the camp, he ended up in a reformatory and became a counterrevolutionary juvenile delinquent.. He even had to beg on some occasions,” Professor Alfred L. told this newspaper.. Chan, one of the biographers of what is now probably the most powerful man in the world. No other leader of a superpower concentrates so much power in his hands without having to be accountable to anyone for his decisions or being questioned in the political and media arena of his country.

The social rehabilitation of the Xi family came in the first years of openness under the leadership of the reformist Deng Xiaoping. The father's reintegration came with a position as deputy director of a tractor factory. Later, back in politics, Xi Zhongxun was one of the promoters of the special economic zones that made the Guangzhou region become the factory of the world.

Xi father died in 2002. In the documentary, his widow, Qi Xin, 97, makes a strange appearance, who is interviewed in several episodes and who highlights the humility that her husband transmitted to her children. Regarding the figure of the matriarch, Chinese propaganda claims that Qi, who was also working as a peasant during the Cultural Revolution, joined the army in the late 1930s, in the war against the Japanese, and that she led a battalion of women. .

Among the characters in the documentary is the president's little brother, Xi Yuanping, who heads an environmental organization. And the older sister, the businesswoman Qi Qiaoqiao, who opened a fund with investments in the mining and real estate sector.

INTERNATIONAL

The Eiffel Tower attacker targeted a monument honoring Jews

Leave a comment

The terrorist threat is increasingly worrying in France and, just eight months before the Olympic Games are held in Paris, there are questions about whether they can be held safely.. The concern has worsened after the attack last Saturday in which a German tourist was murdered next to the Eiffel Tower.. The alleged murderer, a 26-year-old Frenchman, has been charged with murder and attempted murder and is in preventive detention, in solitary confinement.

In police custody, during this period the alleged murderer acknowledged and claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that he did it to avenge “Muslims who are being persecuted”, especially in Gaza.. In principle, as the aggressor has acknowledged, his objective was the Jewish community, specifically he planned to attack the children's memorial at the winter velodrome, as police sources have explained to several French media.

This monument, which was inaugurated in 2017, pays tribute to the more than 4,000 Jewish minors who were deported to Auschwitz in July 1942.. It was after the largest Nazi raid against the Jewish community in the French capital, with the support of the Vichy Government and the French police.

The memorial is near the Eiffel Tower, where the attack was finally carried out. In addition to killing a 23-year-old German tourist, the attacker injured two other people. During his police custody he also stated that seeing the emblematic Tower with the colors of the Israeli flag was another of the reasons that led him to commit his attack.

France has been on maximum terrorist alert for a month and a half, after the attack perpetrated at an institute in Arras, in the north of the country, in which a teacher was stabbed to death. In both cases, both in Arras and in Saturday's, the two attackers had declared their allegiance to the Islamic State. The latter also had psychiatric problems.

In this context, concern among the French and the feeling of insecurity is growing: nine out of 10 fear new attacks. The Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, wanted to reassure citizens and said that France “will mobilize all possible means” to guarantee security for the Olympic Games to be held next summer: “We will go further if it is necessary,” he said in an interview with the newspaper Le Figaro.

Saturday's attack has raised fears of new attacks and, above all, has revealed the cracks that exist in the control of the thousands of French people who are being monitored for their links to jihadism.. In the case of the alleged murderer last Saturday, he had even served time for planning an attack against the Parisian neighborhood of La Défense.

ECONOMY

Scholz's Government will begin 2024 without general budgets due to differences in the tripartite

Leave a comment

The first economy of the European Union will enter 2024 without general budgets. The differences between the parties that form the Government of Chancellor Olaf Scholz on how to settle accounts with the recent ruling of the Constitutional Court are so deep that the prospects of an agreement before Christmas have vanished.. This is what the first secretary of the Social Democratic (SPD) parliamentary group, Katja Mast, has made known to her colleagues.. “Although we have done everything possible to achieve this, the budget for 2024 can no longer be approved on time this year,” he emphasizes.

The negotiations between Scholz, the Minister of Economy, Robert Habeck, representing the Green party, and the head of Finance, Christian Lidner, as head of the liberals of the FDP, are stuck, thereby causing the biggest internal crisis in the coalition of government lived until now.

The cause of the dispute is, among others, a ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court against the budget reorganization. As a consequence, not only are 60 billion euros missing that had been allocated to climate protection projects and modernization of the economy in four years, but it also affects several special funds financed with credits..

The first obstacle that the coalition has to overcome in the budgets for next year has many digits. It is 17,000 million euros. None of the parties is willing to renounce the amounts that had been assigned to their respective ministries prior to the TC ruling and the liberals refuse to lift their foot on the debt brake promised in the electoral campaign and an essential part of their DNA..

The SPD in particular had pushed for the 2024 budget to be approved this year. They wanted a political agreement before the conference that the party will hold this weekend and which he will attend as a guest on Saturday.. Pedro Sánchez, Scholz will therefore go to congress empty-handed. SPD leader Lars Klingbeil, however, hopes for a “political clarification” before the end of the year.. And it speaks of clarification because after an agreement between the leading trio, the matter will pass into other hands. “It is clear that the agreement does not depend on the three of them, but on the parties and parliamentary groups. “Everyone must decide together with the Government,” stressed Klingbeil, for whom the way out of this budgetary – and political – crisis is to suspend the debt brake declared an emergency situation, such as, for example, the war in Ukraine..

The FDP has flatly rejected that proposal. Lindner wants to plug the budget hole through savings: in social spending, development aid and subsidies. The SPD and the Greens oppose each other. In the end there will be concessions, but none will arrive in time to finish the parliamentary process before 2023.

This means that provisional budget management will come into force at the end of the year, that the different ministries will only be able to spend what is strictly necessary and that new projects will not be able to be started.. The Federal Ministry of Finance will monitor compliance with the guidelines and may prevent or authorize significant expenditures. This is the procedure applied after a general election, when the new government lacks time or cannot draw up its own budget before the turn of the year.

SPAIN

Feijóo will attend the meeting proposed by Sánchez before the end of the year but without signs of agreement on the CGPJ

Leave a comment

The expired mandate of the General Council of the Judiciary has been one of the protagonists of the celebration of the anniversary of the Constitution in which the President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has set a date for the call to the leader of the opposition, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, to address its “renewal without conditions”: before the end of the year.

In the PP they reveal that Feijóo accepts the meeting. “If the president calls Feijóo, he will go, but he would like not to have to find out the agenda of his meetings with the president through the media,” the same sources say.

Asked in groups about the renewal of the CGPJ, PP sources have insisted that both the reform of the judiciary and the unblocking of new Council appointments must occur “simultaneously”. In fact, in Genoa they claim that the Commissioner of Justice, Didier Reynders, says the same as the PP.

However, the harsh reality is that neither the Government wants to change the law to reform the model of election of CGPJ members nor is the PP willing to unblock the renewal if this rule is not reformed first.

Therefore, all the leaders of the PP and the PSOE consulted in the circles of the anniversary of the Constitution agree that there will be no renewal of the Council in the coming months.

“There are no more excuses”

And precisely the renewal of the CGPJ, the amnesty and the pacts of the PSOE with the independentists have indelibly marked the 45th anniversary of the Constitution. This has been made clear with the statements of the main political leaders minutes before the institutional event that commemorates the birthday of the Magna Carta began in Congress.

The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, in a statement without questions, has stressed that the Constitution “does not belong to any political party” and has assured that “in the face of those who give lessons in constitutionalism, we must remember that the best way to defend it is to comply with it.” every day of the year and all its articles”. In this sense, and making express reference to the blockage in the renewal of the CGPJ, he stressed: “The excuses are over and it is time to comply, moving from proclamations to facts, complying with the renewal of the General Council of the Judiciary. who has been in office for five years.”. Sánchez has urged the PP to endorse the saying that “before devotion comes obligation.”

Sánchez has assured that he is willing to “reach out” to the leader of the opposition to “engage in state policy” and finally renew the governing body of the judges.

After these words, and in an informal conversation with journalists, Sánchez expressed his intention that in the coming weeks progress could also be made on an agreement with the political forces to reform article 49 of the Constitution, about which he said that There is “a broad consensus”, and to move forward in changing the regional financing model.

Alberto Núñez Feijóo appears before the media in Congress, accompanied by several regional presidents of the PP. Borja Sanchez-Trillo EFE

For his part, Alberto Núñez Feijóo has regretted that in the last five years the State parties have “cracked” and the minority independentists who have agreed with the PSOE have gained ground, making a deal that is “presidency of the Government in exchange for a “continuous attack on the institutions and the Constitution.”

“Sánchez,” he said, “has begun to lead a movement against the Constitution” that is reflected in the amnesty law that he has negotiated with the independentists and that in his opinion is nothing more than “an amendment to all the Magna Carta. For the leader of the PP and for all his regional presidents, “the first objective” is to defend the Constitution and equality. And he has warned: “They are not going to win. The only mediator for coexistence in Spain is the Spanish Constitution. “We will defend it no matter what it takes.”

To know more
Analysis. From Pujol's passionate loyalty to Puigdemont's disloyalty
  • Editor: LUCÍA MÉNDEZ Madrid

From Pujol's passionate loyalty to Puigdemont's disloyalty

Policy. Podemos debuts its move to the Mixed Group, attacking the PSOE and Sumar for “normalizing non-compliance” with the Constitution
  • Editor: MARTA BELVER Madrid

Podemos debuts its move to the Mixed Group, attacking the PSOE and Sumar for “normalizing non-compliance” with the Constitution

In relation to the renewal of the CGPJ, he has insisted that his project is to “guarantee the independence” of the judges while that of the Government is to “control them, exactly what the Constitution rejects.”. Feijóo hopes to “be able to advance” in this area but has warned that he will not be “complicit” in an attempt to control this power of the State.. “There is a dam in favor of the independence of the Judiciary and we will keep it firm”. “We should agree with the independence of the Judiciary but this Government still does not believe in it. In that case we will be sliding down a very dangerous slope,” he warned.

The Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, has assured that the Constitution “does not build walls” although he has admitted that coexistence is now “in check”. In this sense, he has asked the President of the Government for “consistency” because his actions have nothing to do with his words.. For him it is an exercise in “cynicism” to praise the Magna Carta while making agreements with those who want to break it.

Furthermore, in relation to the renewal of the CGPJ, Moreno has assured that the proposal that Feijóo makes in this regard is appropriate: renew the governing body of the judges while reforming the law to change the method of electing its members. .

The president of Castilla y León, Alfonso Fernández Mañueco, has urged Pedro Sánchez to carry out a “deep analysis of the role of institutions” because, in his opinion, “democratic quality is being degraded.”

Mañueco has urged the President of the Government to “do a deep reflection because”, he has stressed, “it is not about colonizing powers such as the Judiciary or managing the institutions at will.”. “Sánchez,” he stressed, “is on a bad path with those who want to break the Constitution and must make a profound and sincere turn”. As long as the head of the Executive does not do this, according to the president of Castilla y León, it will be very difficult to reach an agreement between PP and PSOE to renew the General Council of the Judiciary.

The general secretary of Podemos, Ione Belarra, has regretted that today a good part of the articles of the Constitution are being breached and has made special mention of the right to housing or the article that says that all the country's wealth must be subordinated to the general interest. Belarra has assured that the purple formation will continue working to ensure that these articles are fulfilled.

Minutes later, the leader of Sumar and second vice president of the Government, Yolanda Díaz, assured that the right wants the Constitution to only apply to part of the country.. Díaz has attacked the bipartisanship that has “emptied” the Constitution for many years, failing to comply with a good part of its precepts. “This is violating the Spanish Constitution”. He then stressed that Sumar, with the policies it promotes, complies “in full” with the Magna Carta. Díaz maintains that the Constitution “is alive, it is flexible and must be interpreted based on the moment in which the country is experiencing”. The leader of Sumar has insisted on the message of stopping the right and the extreme right, a mandate that, according to her, is the one that emerges from the 23-J elections. She considers that the Government of Spain “is being besieged by the destructive politics of the right and the extreme right.”

For her part, the parliamentary spokesperson for Vox, Pepa Millán, has justified the non-presence of her group at the institutional event of Congress due to the “hypocrisy” of the PSOE that turns the sentences of the judges into a dead letter with its proposed law of amnesty. “We,” he said, “are not going to be complicit in this.”

SPORTS

The Cup of surprises and scares: Almería, KO against a Segunda RFEF and Real, Rayo, Betis and Las Palmas suffer

Leave a comment

The Copa del Rey has once again left victims and heroes along the way. The third round of the KO competition. has elevated UD Barbastro to heaven and sent UD Almería to hell. A club from the Second Federation, the fourth category of Spanish football, beating a team from the First Division to reach the round of 32, where Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atlético de Madrid and Osasuna will enter, the four clubs that will play the Super Cup in Arabia in January. In Barbastro, in the province of Huesca, the big surprise happened. But there were also scares.

If on Tuesday night Getafe and Valencia had no problems winning at the fields of Atzeneta and Arosa, the festive Wednesday did leave unexpected sensations for the favorite clubs. Cartagena beat Alcorcón on penalties, Huesca beat Antequera, Tenerife beat Deportivo de la Coruña in extra time, Burgos won in the land of Arenteiro, Unionistas surprised Sporting, Málaga beat Eldense , Amorebieta won against Levante and Lugo against Mirandés.

As for the First Division clubs, scares, many scares. At midday, Rayo Vallecano could not score against Yeclano until the 89th minute, thanks to the miraculous appearance of Falcao. De Tomás put the finishing touch in the 94th minute, but the Second RFEF team fought until the final stretch of the duel and was on the verge of causing extra time.

Later, Real Sociedad also suffered against a rival from the fourth category, Andratx, from the Balearic Islands. The txuri-urdin breathed in the second half thanks to a goal from André Silva, but suffered in stoppage time to hold on to the result. A narrow victory that Alavés 'copied' in Terrassa. The Vitoria team scored early, in the 21st minute, but could not increase their lead and ended up asking for time against the Second RFEF club.

In the night shift, Betis was on the verge of being eliminated in Villanueva de la Serena. Villanovense, also from the Second RFEF, took the lead and when it seemed that the Andalusians were going to suffer the big surprise of this round, Abde appeared to tie the duel in the 89th minute.. With the locals sunk by the mood, Borja Iglesias completed the comeback in stoppage time to save Pellegrini's team, who host Madrid this Saturday.

More comfortable were the victories of Mallorca (0-3) and Sevilla (0-2) against Valle Egüés and Astorga. And Las Palmas suffered a lot in Tudela against Tudelano. The Canaries took the lead in the initial stretch but the locals, also from Second RFEF, managed to tie and forced extra time, where they were eliminated by a goal from Munir in the 124th minute that qualified for Las Palmas.

SPORTS

Convulsion in world golf: Jon Rahm considers joining the Saudi LIV

Leave a comment

A first bomb shook golf last June with the agreement between the PIF (Public Investment Foundation of Saudi Arabia) and the PGA Tour. That shock wave still shakes the waters of a sport that is counting down the hours until December 31, the date on which the aforementioned pact should be formalized.. The offices in Jedah (Saudi Arabia) and Jacksonville (Florida) are a hive of lawyers and executives who are drafting clauses against the clock to try to seal an alliance with many conflicting points.. However, there is a secret weapon that could tip the balance of the agreement: Jon Rahm.

To know more
Golf. Rahm and the controversy over the golf alliance with the Saudis: “Many feel betrayed”
  • Editor: HUGO COSTA

Rahm and the controversy over the golf alliance with the Saudis: “Many feel betrayed”

To know more
Golf. The dizzying figures of the first year of LIV Golf: eight tournaments and 1.5 billion
  • Editor: HUGO COSTA

The dizzying figures of the first year of LIV Golf: eight tournaments and 1.5 billion

The one from Barrika has a foot and a half in the LIV Golf. The rumor started on Sunday of the last DP World Tour tournament. This newspaper received the news put into the mouth of one of the highest executives of the formerly called European Circuit.. From then on, a whole investigative task began that was met with an absolute silence that is especially striking when it comes from the direct environment of the Spanish player, who did not want to speak out, when on other occasions he did come out to attack the rumor, to deny his possible departure to the Saudi league.

In September 2022, it was precisely Jon Rahm who came forward to deny a publication on social networks from one of the most active accounts about LIV Golf. LIV Golf Insider published that the Spaniard had agreed to move to LIV. “I have to inform you that you have started a bad streak because you and your sources are wrong,” Jon said.. So, there was also an immediate denial when this newspaper raised the issue with his family and his manager.

Just a few months before, in June 2022, on the occasion of the US Open, Jon Rahm made his position and opinion very clear regarding what the Saudi tour meant for him.. “Three days for me is not a golf tournament, and without a cut. It's that easy. “I want to play against the best in the world in a format that has existed for hundreds of years.”. The Spaniard went further: “Yes, money is great, but when Kelley and I saw what was happening and started talking about it, we thought: would our lifestyle change if I won 400 million dollars? No, nothing will change “. “I could retire right now with what I've done and live a very happy life and never play golf again.”. I've never actually played for financial reasons.. I do it for the love of this sport and I want it to be against the best in the world. I've always been interested in history and legacy, and right now the PGA Tour owns all of this. “There is a meaning when you win certain tournaments and that matters a lot to me,” he added then..

The question right now is obvious, what has changed in just over a year for Rahm to pluck the daisy and negotiate with the Saudis? The most notable difference is the possibility of an agreement that may allow the one from Barrika (even if he emigrates to LIV) to continue competing in the most important tournaments of the PGA Tour and in the Ryder Cup. Could this negotiation be a measure of pressure to emerge better positioned in our supposed PGA Tour structure that aims to make its players business partners?

Precisely the dizzying economic offer could have definitively tipped the balance. Jon Rahm would become the highest-paid golfer on the LIV, with a signing fee of more than $550 million (as reported by the Telegraph), above other players who left the PGA Tour, Phil Mickelson and Dustin Johnson.. In August 2022 there was talk that the new league financed by the government of Saudi Arabia offered between 700 and 800 million dollars to Tiger Woods to try to add to his project.

Rahm, during the Augusta Masters, in April. Charlie Riedel AP

Nothing is clear about this, the only thing that is known is that there is a negotiation that is convulsing the PGA Tour in recent weeks.. “I would be surprised, yes, but a lot of different things have happened in the last few weeks. Things have changed and will continue to change,” said Tiger Woods himself when asked about the rumors.. “Jon Rahm is one of the greatest assets we have on the PGA Tour. It wouldn't be very good for us overall because we want to play against the best players in the world and that's what Jon is.. I know there have been some guys that have talked to him. “I know he may be weighing some decisions, maybe not…” said Jordan Spieth, another of the PGA Tour's heavyweights..

Everyone is talking, except Jon Rahm, who plans to go to the San Mamés stadium on December 16 to take the kick-off dressed in the green jacket. The Spanish player's entourage warns that it is a private visit and he will not attend to the media.. A few weeks ago Rahm also announced that he would not compete in the famous Tiger Woods League (TGL) despite having announced its beginnings.. The Spaniard claimed that he could not commit all the time required to participate in this experience.. He will not be defending the title at the American Express at the beginning of the year either, although he is expected to be in the tournament of champions that would open in 2024 in Hawaii.. Coincidences or signs of new winds? We understand that we will not have to wait too long to know the end of this story and Jon Rahm's destiny and reasons for starting a new stage in 2024 or staying on the PGA Tour.

SPORTS

Tsygankov and Dovbyk, the Ukrainians who make Girona fall in love

Leave a comment

Girona's attack has a clear Ukrainian accent. Viktor Tsygankov, who arrived at the club last winter market, and, above all, Artem Dovbyk, are dazzling the fans of a team that insists on remaining perched at the top of the table. Orihuela is measured in the Copa del Rey. An important duel, but one that has also become the prelude to the assault that Míchel's men will try to carry out on Montjuïc on Sunday.

In front of them they will have a Barça that apparently recovered its best feelings against Atlético, even though their victory against Simeone's team was only by the minimum. Girona, however, already knows very well what to do to score in Barça territory. So far, they have drawn two draws in their visits to the Camp Nou, in the 2018-19 season (2-2) and in 2022-23 (0-0), although their debut, in 2017-18, ended with rout (6-1).

Revalued in Montilivi

Viktor Tsygankov (Nahariya, Israel, 1997) is already an old acquaintance for the fans of the Girona team. Or rather, not so old. Not in vain, he landed in Montilivi during the last winter market, after the entity paid around five million euros to Dinamo kyiv as a transfer fee.. Given what we've seen, a bargain. His contract with the Ukrainian team ended on June 30 and, given his refusal to extend it, his previous club preferred to get something from his sale, despite his quality and the fact that he has emerged as one of the undisputed leaders of his team.. Right now its value would be around 22 million euros, although it would even reach 25 million in 2021.

In his first half year at Girona, Tsygankov played a total of 19 games, scoring three goals and giving six assists.. So far this season, he has already equaled last season's scoring record and has two assists.. In this case, he has been able to be on the pitch in 13 of the 15 League matches played: a muscle injury and precautions to avoid relapses have forced him to miss two games.

His compatriot Artem Dovbyk (Cherkasky, Ukraine, 1997), meanwhile, has become one of the most pleasant surprises among the additions made by Girona for this season. Not in vain, with seven goals in the 14 League games he has played (he was left out of the squad in the match against Athletic which, in the end, cost the Girona team to lose the lead), he has emerged as the top scorer for Míchel's team. He is followed by an old rocker like the Uruguayan Cristhian Stuani, who has five goals in his locker, and the Brazilian Savio, who is on loan from French side Troyes, with four. He arrived at the team that Míchel coaches last August, from the Ukrainian Dnipro-1 and, although initially he gradually entered the coach's plans, who preferred to bring him on from the bench in the first four league games, he has already become with a practically undisputed position in the starting team.

Dovbyk's performance at the point of attack speaks for itself. In his official debut with Girona he was already able to score the goal that would allow his team to sign a draw with Real Sociedad in the San Sebastian stadium (1-1). And, in the next nine games that he started as a starter, he managed to add six more goals to his statistics (two of them in a duel against Almería that ended with a 5-2 victory for his team) and five assists. Without a doubt, he is a threat to be taken into account for any rival of Girona, be it Orihuela or Barça.

SPORTS

"I am looking for a left-footed, fast and deep winger for the First Division. Reason: FutbolJobs"

Leave a comment

Modern, industrialized football demands workers who feed it in all its facets, and word of mouth, offers from agents or the scouting network are no longer enough.. Not even artificial intelligence with its analysis programs that monitor players in the main leagues. There is a tool exported from the world of work that is beginning to be installed: the connection between supply and demand, between the professional who is looking for a job, or wants to improve it, and the team, club or even federation that needs to recruit personnel.

The headline of this article is not entirely a journalistic license to explain a phenomenon that grew up around modest football and that expands its scope to the professional categories.. Respond to a job offer on FutbolJobs, an online platform created in 2013 as the first active employment exchange for professions related exclusively to football. In 10 years, the company that was born in Orihuela (Alicante) directed by Valentín Botella Nicolás, has collected offers for players, coaches, physical trainers, physiotherapists or analysts from all over the world. Now, even from the First Division.

“We are looking for a midfielder (strong and physical) for a First Division club in Spain, a proven professional player in the division, with a community passport, option of free exit or loan, without agent or agencies”. This is an advertisement that has been active for 44 days and to which 384 candidates have applied. As in any job offer, the requirements are clear: “Profile on Transfermarkt (Minimum value 800,000 euros), experience in LaLiga (Preferable), European passport and active this season”. The salary, “according to the player's profile.”

But there is more. «They are looking for a left-footed, fast and deep winger for the First Division of Spain. Proven players with experience in the category, community passport, free of agents and with the option of free exit or loan». In this case, the requirement is a profile valued at one million euros and the salary is defined as “competitive”, for which 252 candidates are applying in an offer that is still open.

The last one is only a few hours old and already has around twenty applicants.. «Center forward for Spanish First Division club. Requirements: must be fast and strong, able to keep the ball, with experience and good statistics. Submit profile on Transfermarkt. Only for official agent of the player, we will not talk to third parties. The club has a transfer budget of up to 12 million and a salary of up to 750,000 euros per year.”.

This window did not exist in football until the birth of this platform, comparable to the well-known Infojobs or LinkedIn, and players from Third RFEF, Preferente or Regional have used it for years, to whom recognized coaches such as Lucas Alcaraz, with a long resume in the First and Second Division, Jon Errasti, former Éibar player now coach in the Villarreal youth team, and even a well-known Spanish international now on the bench. Professionals, many of whom do not allow their names to be given, find the tool useful, but clubs do too.. Before the First Division offers, those from some Second Division clubs also arrived, interested in collecting profiles of interesting players.. For representation agencies it is also a good recruitment weapon.. They also publish them to later serve profiles to the teams they work with.. More than 180,000 users from 160 countries use it.

«Our job consists of putting the person who wants to work in the world of football in agreement with the team or company that demands it.. “We are not agents nor do we charge for the transaction,” Botella assures ELMUNDO.. Its income comes from subscriptions, which are around 5,000 active today and, although access to FutbolJobs is free, to view the full content of the offer, initiate contact and respond with a resume or videos it is necessary to be a subscriber to one. of the packs.

The platform publishes an average of 10 offers a day from all over the world that pass its initial screening. Afterwards, everything is in the hands of its users and their only job is to track, if possible, whether what they call “a success story” has occurred.. That is, a match. “We estimate that we have had close to 2,000 success stories in these ten years and many are from professionals who have been chaining jobs that were offered or requested through us,” adds Botella Nicolás.

Three million for a complete coaching staff

If there are offers in Spain, where professional football is emerging strongly, they multiply. A tsunami was what unleashed an offer from Saudi Arabia for players because it offered $4,000 a month plus a house to play in its third division. But there is not only money for players. They also published an offer of three million euros for a complete coaching staff for a team, this time, First Division.

In the North American Major League Soccer (MLS), a “first coach” is sought for the Seattle Sounders reserve team, but classic markets also publish offers such as physical trainer for the West Ham academy or physiotherapists for Spartak Prague.

Reinforcements are also being sought for the offices, such as the Singapore Federation, which is trying to recruit a manager for the operational and administrative management of the centers where it hopes to develop its future talents.

Women's football does not escape, despite the fact that professionalization does not reach the same level nor does it move at the same speed in all countries.. In Germany they are looking for players for second division teams, but the Oceania Confederation has an active advertisement to find women's football directors to “manage and drive the development strategy of women's football, including participation, visibility, education, performance and culture.

FutbolJobs also completes its job offer with training opportunities offered through its collaboration agreements with entities such as Real Madrid, LaLiga, the RFEF or the Johan Cruyff Institute.. “It is possible that at the beginning it was seen as something strange in a professional world that connected through other means, but today I believe that a tool like ours is basic for those who intend to look for jobs in the world of football,” says the general director.. The ball industry has already taken another step.

INTERNATIONAL

The father (communist hero and traitor) of President Xi Jinping

Leave a comment

WHO. He is the father of the current Chinese president and it is 110 years since his birth. He was one of Mao Zedong's comrades and a big shot in the first generation of Chinese communist leaders.

THAT. Regarding such an important date, the Chinese state channel CCTV is broadcasting a documentary about his figure, also an opportunity to better understand the past of the omnipresent Chinese leader and his loved ones.

The Chinese state channel CCTV has been broadcasting on a loop for a few days a six-part documentary about the father of the omnipresent President Xi Jinping. It is 110 years since the birth of Xi Zhongxun, one of Mao Zedong's comrades and big shot of the first generation of Chinese communist leaders.. The anniversary excuse was perfect to reunite the Xi family around the figure of the late patriarch.

The documentary, titled Chicheng, which translated from Mandarin means Total Devotion, reviews the revolutionary career of Xi Sr., who led several guerrillas in the north until he became, after the proclamation of the People's Republic of China (1949), vice prime minister.. What the film forgets to highlight is that, just over a decade later, at the gates of the Cultural Revolution, Xi Zhongxun was accused of treason..

He went from revolutionary hero to being a plague. He ended up in prison and his family, publicly humiliated, also suffered the consequences.. Xi Jinping, like many other young people from wealthy families in big cities, was not spared from forced labor in the countryside.. And many reports suggest that one of his sisters committed suicide.

After only six months of digging wells in a village in northern China, Xi Jinping fled the countryside and sought refuge again in Beijing.. But the young rebel did not count on the fact that his own mother, instead of opening the doors of the house for him, would report him to the authorities.. She, Qi Xin, did not want her son to become a lifelong deserter.

“The entire Xi family suffered unfair persecution by Mao's Red Guard. The current president was a teenager when his family separated and he had to fend for himself. Before being sent to the camp, he ended up in a reformatory and became a counterrevolutionary juvenile delinquent.. He even had to beg on some occasions,” Professor Alfred L. told this newspaper.. Chan, one of the biographers of what is now probably the most powerful man in the world. No other leader of a superpower concentrates so much power in his hands without having to be accountable to anyone for his decisions or being questioned in the political and media arena of his country.

The social rehabilitation of the Xi family came in the first years of openness under the leadership of the reformist Deng Xiaoping. The father's reintegration came with a position as deputy director of a tractor factory. Later, back in politics, Xi Zhongxun was one of the promoters of the special economic zones that made the Guangzhou region become the factory of the world.

Xi father died in 2002. In the documentary, his widow, Qi Xin, 97, makes a strange appearance, who is interviewed in several episodes and who highlights the humility that her husband transmitted to her children. Regarding the figure of the matriarch, Chinese propaganda claims that Qi, who was also working as a peasant during the Cultural Revolution, joined the army in the late 1930s, in the war against the Japanese, and that she led a battalion of women. .

Among the characters in the documentary is the president's little brother, Xi Yuanping, who heads an environmental organization. And the older sister, the businesswoman Qi Qiaoqiao, who opened a fund with investments in the mining and real estate sector.