This is just football, but enough because football is everything. It is politics, sociology, and economics. It explains a society, the anesthesia, it unites and divides us, it drives us to put our arms in the trash and find the witch’s mirror, the one that tells us we are the most handsome, stupid, and generous, but, at the same time, that there are others just as handsome, stupid, and generous. And also, when the case arises, racist, irresponsible, and cruel. Belonging to a club, to a national team, these days defines us, integrates us, prevents us from answering unanswerable questions, places us in rituals and calendars tied to curiosity, to the amazement of the game as a life lesson, its spectacularization.

One day after Fede Valverde reacted, Aurélien Tchouaméni did so via a statement on social media. He did so once the half-million euro fine for each of the two Real Madrid players became known.

While Real Madrid was facing an uphill battle in the clásico with a 2-0 from the 18th minute, Kylian Mbappé was watching from the capital as he could not travel due to a hamstring injury. His trip to Cagliari (Italy) with his girlfriend Ester Expósito still lingers, and some disturbing images show him leaving the Valdebebas training ground smiling after Valverde and Tchouaméni fought in the locker room. It was a self-destructive week at Madrid, also for Mbappé.