The sun was out at UCLA on July 23 and so were Real Madrid fans. Using the club’s unmistakable white jerseys as makeshift shields against the sun’s 90 degree heat, the fans lined the fences for hundreds of feet leading up to UCLA’s North Athletic Field, pens, notebooks and jerseys in hand, hoping to get a signature from one of their soccer heroes.
Since 2010, UCLA has been hosting the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid for a week as the players train for their upcoming season in Spain’s La Liga. The club won the Champions League earlier this year — the most prestigious title in European soccer — and is currently considered the best team on the planet. Fans flock to campus for the chance to see the legendary players in real-life — and so do a few celebrities. David Beckham has been known to drop by, and NBA star Carmelo Anthony kicked a ball around with the players earlier this week. Real Madrid began their training on July 22 and will practice at UCLA through July 28.
One of the fans in the crowd, Daniel Noji, comes to this event every year. A Real Madrid fan for the past 10 years, Noji stood by the barricades holding a soccer ball with more than 15 signatures on it — all of past and present Real players. He’s been adding names at these practices for the last five years.
“I haven’t gotten Gareth Bale’s signature yet,” Noji, 27, said. Bale, a Welsh winger, is a recent addition to the team having joined last year. “That’s one of my goals today.”
Noji works at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA as a programmer, and keeps the signature-covered ball on his desk.
“I haven’t missed a Real game in 6 years,” he said. “And this event is the perfect opportunity to see the best footballers in the world. I see them on TV every weekend, and it’s amazing to see them up close.”
The practices are closed to the public, so on the soccer pitch, it is a much different scene than the pandemonium outside.
Inside the brick wall surrounding the field, the sounds of the media hung in the air. Camera clicks, Spanish whispers and British accents buzzed along the sideline as videographers, photographers and reporters scrambled to get their stories, whereas the smell of sunscreen permeated the noise from the other side of the sideline. The Real Madrid assistant coaches were applying generous swaths of sunscreen, to protect against the intensity of the Southern California sun.
The team went through its strength training and fitness exercises, culminating in a half-field scrimmage. Stars like Bale, whom Noji wanted to get an autograph from, and the Portuguese defender Pepe were clad in the team’s Adidas gear that bears “Fly Emirates” on the chest.
Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti watched the team vigilantly, periodically yelling things like, “Ayudalo!”(“Help him!”) and “No perder, no perder!” (Don’t lose it, don’t lose it!). Practice was competitive, but relatively tranquil. That would change when the players faced the fans.
The moment a player stepped outside and within view of the fans, they erupted in screams. When Xabi Alonso walked out to one of the many golf carts waiting to take team members back and forth from the locker room, the sea of fans formed a tidal wave of yearning.
“Xabi! Xabi!” “Please, please,” “Over here, Xabi!” thundered people in the crowd, their arms outstretched for a handshake or an autograph. So many fans were toppling over themselves to get to him that the fence holding them back nearly fell over. The midfielder signed a few autographs, took a few photos, and hopped into the golf cart. His teammate Pepe, who was similarly mauled by fans, joined him and the two were driven away by security. When the players were out of sight, the fans fell back into a lull, anxiously awaiting the next opportunity to glimpse a star.
To pass time between player sightings, fans passed soccer balls to each other. Others found some rare splashes of shade and took brief respites from the heat. But many fans remained pressed up against the fences, standing at the ready, focused on their goal: meeting a player.
Some of Real’s most popular players will not attend the practices at UCLA, including Cristiano Ronaldo, James Rodriguez and Marcelo. When asked what he thought about Ronaldo’s absence, Noji didn’t have a chance to respond. His female friend, who had been hanging on the barricade, turned around and playfully interjected, “I came here to see Ronaldo,” she said. “I don’t know why I’m even here now.”
They shared a laugh.
Another fan a couple of feet away overheard their conversation and squeezed through the crowd to share his opinion on Ronaldo’s absence. He and Noji got to talking and found out that they both hailed from the same town, Hanford (about three hours north of L.A.), and even went to the same high school. They embraced, and Noji quickly turned and said, “See here? Real Madrid is bringing people together.”
Judging by the hordes of fans crowding together to see the team in spite of the sweltering heat, Noji, who ultimately achieved his goal of adding Bale's signature to his soccer ball and a jersey, couldn’t have been more right.