March 1997 – N°23 – Love for the game – ENGLISH

Top model, actress, UNICEF ambassadress and for as long as she can remember….. an Atletico Madrid supporter: the Spanish top model, Inès Sastre, tells us with typically Latin fervour about her love for the game. “It’s difficult to explain why you love a sport, and even more so when you happen to be a woman, a model and an actress, and the sport in question is football!

Perhaps it is easier to understand however, if I tell you I am Spanish, and, what’s more, from Madrid. I was very young when I began to go to football matches with friends. Most of them, like many young people in Spain, played football for a club and at the weekend went to the “Vincente Calderon”, the home of Atletico Madrid. That’s right, I’m not a follower of Real ! My real favourites, however, are Barcelona. Over the years, the players I’ve absolutely adored have worn the Barça jersey, true magicians who really knew how to “put on a show”, like Koeman, Bakero and Stoichkov.

Football, I think, should above all be an entertainment. Atletico is the only Spanish club that has a brass band and cheerleaders at half time, which I think really adds to the occasion : all the more so because Spanish crowds are very passionate and extremely partisan. For ninety minutes on match days, Spanish cities come to a standstill, and the only sign of life is in the stadiums.

I remember fondly the match last season when Atletico became Spanish league champions for the first time in 25 years. Everyone went wild – the noise of all the car-horns blaring together in the streets afterwards was fantastic! I’ve also seen some marvellous games at Nou Camp in Barcelona, which is a magnificent stadium to watch football in.

“Between fashion shows, I support my favourite teams”

On occasion my work has coincided with football matches. A couple of years ago in Parma I did a photo shot for an Italian designer in the stadium before the Parma-Ajax of Amsterdam match.

Today, between fashion shows, I still follow my two favourites, Atletico and Barça, as well as the Spanish national team which looks well set to qualify for the 1998 World Cup finals.

Whenever I read a newspaper, I always spend a lot of time on the sports pages, which, I’m glad to say, are usually full of football ! In fact, I’m a real sports lover in general. On top of working-out at the gym with an instructor, I practise many different sports : golf, running, walking, swimming and scuba diving.

Sadly, I don’t have a great deal of time left to go to matches. My life is spent going between Madrid, Paris and London. I would have loved to be at the games in EURO 96, even though the British press wasn’t very kind to the Spanish. I did see the France – Spain match on TV with friends… in Paris, and as you can imagine I was the only one supporting Spain.

It reminded me of the PSG – Barcelona match; the atmosphere was just the same. Recently, the Spanish teams don’t seem to faring too well against the French sides! All the same, I was delighted to discover that Spain was the team chosen to play against France in a friendly match to inaugurate the new Stade de France on 28 January 1998. This time, I’m really hoping I’ll be able to find the time to be at the game, if, of course, I can get hold of a ticket!”