Modern football is all about excesses. Just ask Fulham, who had to splurge a reported 34 million pounds for Real Madrid’s backup striker Gonzalo Garcia.
The 22-year-old arrives in London on a five-year deal, with an option to extend for another year.
With Alvaro Arbeloa replacing Marco Silva at Craven Cottage, Garcia has followed in the Spaniard’s footsteps alongside another Castilla product Cesar Palacios. The latter was handed his debut by Arbeloa last year and managed to take the field five times for the Galacticos.
Garcia, meanwhile, enjoyed a breakthrough season at the Bernabeu as he graduated from an academy player to a bona fide first squad member. The striker managed to rack up over 50 appearances for the Los Blancos under Arbeloa, scoring 13 goals in the process to capably plug the gap whenever Kylian Mbappe was out injured.
The move to the Premier League means Garcia has also received a significant bump in his salary and is expected to earn five million pounds over the course of next season. The effects of this payday were already evident when Fulham released a picture announcing the youngster’s signing.
Donning a shiny white Fulham home jersey, Garcia sat in the stands at their stadium as the cameras honed in on his face. However, what caught the fans’ eyes were certain elements out of focus.
Garcia was absurdly wearing a watch in each of his hands as he flashed a huge grin. The piece on his left wrist featured a classic metallic meshed chain, wrapped around a dark round dial.
The counterpart on the other wrist, meanwhile, appeared blurred in the photograph; but it is undoubtedly no cheap asset either. There is a possibility that Garcia might have been wearing a Whoop fitness tracker instead of a watch, but either way it appeared like an unnecessary flex.
Fortunately for Garcia, he was one upped by an even stranger recurrence a few thousand miles away in the United States.
Liverpool took on Leeds in their final friendly of the American pre-season leg on Sunday and had a special guest in attendance. Watching the action unfold with the squad was star forward Hugo Ekitike, who is still recovering from an achilles tendon rupture.
Ekitike took to the field before kickoff to greet fans without any walking aids, a recent milestone on his road to recovery. The Frenchman was dapped up in a black Adidas Liverpool track suit, the look complete with a black beanie on top of his head.
Yet, much like Garcia, the focus of fans drifted to what the 24-year-old was carrying in his hands.
Ekitike held not one, not two, but three phones stacked together, alongside a solitary pair of earphones. All three seemed to be in different colours and boasted varying case types to distinguish between them.
There was little explanation as to why a professional footballer could possibly be required to have three devices with him. Ekitike did not seem bothered by the anomaly either, as he clapped to the crowd’s beat with all three phones nestled comfortably in his palm.
Ekitike recently missed the World Cup with France after sustaining the injury during the Champions League knockouts against Paris Saint-Germain in April. He is not expected to return to action until the start of 2027, with a distinct possibility that he might even end up missing the entire season.
At least Ekitike will have his three phones to give him company while he goes through this difficult phase in his professional career. He can always ask Garcia how much longer he is supposed to stay out, given the Fulham man’s apparent watch obsession.
