Dispatch from abroad - Karlo in Madrid - September 2024
OK, so it should be clearly said here, I am a Barcelona supporter so technically this would be a “hate-watch”, but the truth is that the new Bernebeu seems very modern inside with the wrap-around screen showing highlights within the match. Plus, I was excited to watch Mbappe, Bellingham, Vini Jr., and Rodrygo in their first season together. This match was against Espanyol, famous local rivals of Barcelona FC, and for US Men’s National Team supporters, the former club of Mauricio Pochettino when he played as center-back.
When buying resale tickets in Spain, you often get physical tickets, which cannot be mailed to you. I’ve used StubHub International often and also for this purchase. It’s important to know where you are staying so you can be ready with a physical address in country (e.g. Spain), though you can update it later on Stubhub. I had to trust that the tickets would appear at my hotel and they did after timely communication with the seller on WhatsApp. I also had to return the Socio cards, which were like any ID just without a picture, the next day to the hotel front desk, which I did.
A socio card holder.
An edited image of the two socio cards with details removed.
We took the subway as the Bernabeu is in the north part of Madrid, the outer part of the city. There is a beautiful, long boulevard with a pedestrian walkway called Paseo de la Castellana that you can walk if it’s a nice day. It can be reached easily by walking north on Paseo de Recoletos, passing Plaza Colon, then becoming Paseo de la Castellana. The subway goes directly to the stadium and while there is a long line when you leave the stadium, it is quite orderly and does move, so be patient. The stop is called…Santiago Bernabeu.
Pre-renovation in November 2017 at the Bernabeu. I sat in the very top row to watch this match against Malaga and watched Ronaldo, Benzema and Casemiro score goals as they won 3 - 2.
Post-renovation in September 2024. I had much better seats this match.
Prior to the match, there are numerous bars where you can order a beer and a sandwich for take-away. I recommend you bring food into the stadium, which we didn’t do, but noticed that others had. I bought two scarfs and planned to give one to guest of the show, Christopher (listen to his episode about his Spurs fandom here). I also felt the need to blend in and enjoy the game as a local would.
Security was very light 40 minutes prior to the match and the security guards could tell we were tourists and clueless and looked at our socio cards and let us in without incident. After that you are shuttled to your section of the stadium. There isn’t much in the way of concessions and most people in our section brought sunflower seeds and were treating it like peanuts at a baseball game.
The game was exciting from the standpoint of seeing top players score goals. After scoreless first half, the second half didn’t disappoint. Madrid’s goalkeeper, Thibaut Courtois had an error that lead to an own goal at the 54th minute, and Los Blancos responded with aplumb, firing in four goals from Dani Carvajal 58’, Rodrygo 75’, Vinicius Junior 78’, and Kylian Mbappe 90’ (P). Here’s the match recap via ESPN FC.
