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Jun. 30th Spain Conquers Europe, read the headlines

I am lucky to be in Spain on the day that they continue to celebrate the victory of their football team in the Euro 2008 Final in Vienna Sunday night. The big fiesta is now taking place in Madrid, as the heroes come home to a massive street parade.

But, to me, an outsider and definitely not the world’s number one football fan, the day has been a day of victory for newspapers. You could not get a copy of any of the major European dailies at the kiosks and stores of Maspalomas, unless you were up before 10 am.

Yes, the Germans, whose team was defeated, wanted to read all about it. “We are still proud of you,” shouted the 350 point headline in Bild Zeitung. FAZ ran a rare full six columns across photo of the team. The Spanish dailies devoted page after page to galleries of photos. El Mundo opened with a short but inspirational commentary about the glory of Spain as seen through the eyes of a new generation of young Spaniards who are ready to be number one in everything, from tennis (Nadal), to Formula One (Alonso), to now football, and the one star they call The Golden Boy, Fernando Torres.

Everywhere one turned, a tanned face with sunglasses on, and a newspaper!

And, because, there is no wireless communication on the beach, forget your iPhone, Blackberry or whatever other device you have. Here, it is the newspaper.

Posted by Dr. Mario R. Garcia