This story has been dragging itself in the Serbian gossip press for nearly half a year now, but I haven't been writing about it because:
a) 99% of the things The Spitting One says to the tabloids over here is pure bull. Judging by the stuff he says, he runs the things over there at the ol' Inter camp. Mancini-Schmancini. Ha!
b) Inter? Coming to... Novi Sad? Come on. Belgrade, I can stomach, but Novi Sad... Yes of course, Billy Idol and Pet Shop Boys appeared there on the Exit festival, but Kelis turned them down. Kelis goddamnit! If she didn't want to be bothered, why on Earth would Inter go?
But it appears that Mr. Mihajlovic is indeed a big wheel down at the cracker factory and that indeed Inter would be guesting in Novi Sad this Monday. Playing an exibition match against a team that is called "The friends of Sinisa". Who the hell they are, I do not know, but I guess Mutu and Vieira won't be on the roster certainly. But the tabloids are going wild, mentioning names such as Totti, Maldini, Vieri, Michael Schumacher (?), Eros Ramazotti (??) and Vlade Divac (???). The Miha-man would play one half of the match for Inter, and the other one for the "Friends" team. The lights and the equipment will be imported from Italy, and the tickets are already sold out. All 9000 of them. A nine thousand seat stadium? Jesus. Huge, I know.
Anyway, as I was saying, I thought that was one of the many lies that Sinisa shoves down our throats on a regular basis, and then he proved that he means business.
He brought Zlatan to Novi Sad. And he made him speak in Serbian.
His Serbian is actually better than his English. Which kinda makes sense, since he swears exclusively in Serbian, so the referees don't understand him. Ibra does fuss a bit with nouns and their proper declinations, and he doesn't know that Champions League is called "Liga Šampiona" in Serbian, but many of our politicians talk like that too, so I am proud of him. I wish I could scan in some pictures, but alas I can't find any.
So... Inter in Novi Sad? In full power? Not exactly. If you read the fine print in the link I have given above, you'll see that Ibra is recovering from groin surgery, Recoba, Samuel, Vieira and a few others are injured and the Argentines and the Brazilians and the Uruguayans are getting ready for Coppa America, so it is unlikely that they will appear. Which leaves us with... Mariano Gonzalez? Sebastian Ribas? Paolo Orlandoni? Pshaw.
I wasn't able to get the tickets for the game, so maybe I am being a little sour, but if you think about it, that's probably how it's gonna be.
More updates on the Miha Farewell to follow...