Cristiano, Varane, Casemiro

There is a very funny photo taken in Cardiff during the Champions League final between Madrid and Juve (4-1), surely the Whites' best final in Europe in this century, the final that definitively related that squad to that of Madrid of the six cups.

Cristiano Ronaldo has just scored the first goal, Casemiro seems to be imitating his celebration in front of him, laughing, and the scene is watched by Raphael Varane, a meter away.

It was in 2017. Five years have passed, which in football is an outrageous amount of time.

Cristiano, Casemiro and Varane continue to play for the same team, but not Madrid but Manchester United.

None of the three were invited to leave their club, although the club agreed and facilitated their departures.

Casemiro (30 years old), the youngest of the three in Madrid's midfield,

He was a substitute this Sunday in the Manchester derby.

Next to him, Cristiano Ronaldo, of his greatness says it all the fact that there are fans laughing at him for being a substitute with 37 years in United, not in his neighborhood team -.

And on the field, receiving six goals from City, Raphael Varane (29).

Football is similar to life in that it makes little sense, but there is something that never changes: time is linear, it only moves forward, and there are very few, very chosen ones, who can be good on their own.

Others, to be their best version, need everything else, almost suitable atmospheric conditions that are the consequence of an unrepeatable moment in their lives in which everything, suddenly, comes from the face.

It happens not only in football: it happens in any job, with family, with friends, with a partner;

Suddenly it seems that everything in life is arranged for you, that after billions of years the universe has finally found meaning in its random existence: you and your happiness, your moment.

At the beginning of the century, on a train that was taking us to Holland, a friend sprawled out in his seat, full of joy, 21 years old, and said:

“Right now I only need a cigarette to explode with happiness”, and at the moment in which they reminded him that there was no tobacco, not even a lighter, a lit cigarette appeared rolling down the aisle of the car.

This happened because we saw it, there were five of us and we saw it;

Needless to say, my friend got as far as he wanted to go, partly because he quit smoking.

There was a moment in the sports career of Casemiro, Cristiano and Varane when every day was a day of lit cigarettes rolling down the aisles of a train;

to the three of them, if they wanted to do anything, destiny put it in the way.

This happened at Madrid as it could have happened at any other club, although, to paraphrase Carlos Martínez's wonderful narration on PSG day, these things happen at Madrid more than anywhere else.

There is no curse or cold that condemns those who leave the club;

the only thing that happens is that the extraordinary things that happen at Real Madrid cost more than they happen at Manchester United.

Casemiro is on the bench because to become Casemiro he needed a Kroos and a Modric, not one season but six.

Varane shared defense with Sergio Ramos, not Harry Maguire.

against the best teams in the world;

that is to say, to feed the biggest beast that Madrid has produced since Di Stéfano, we had to sacrifice nine years to a similar beast.

More than Madrid and Cristiano, this says it all about Karim Benzema's impressive category and unrepeatable career.

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