Real Madrid have received a significant boost as David Alaba has returned to full training. The Austrian defender has been sidelined with a knee injury since october 2023, but has now made a full recovery and is expected to be available for selection in the coming weeks.

Between his spells at Madrid his superiors were Bayern Munich’s self-confident president Uli Hoeness (Ancelotti was there for 2016-17), Napoli ’s larger-than-life president Aurelio de Laurentiis (during 2018-19) and Everton ’s majority owner Farhad Moshiri (2019-2021).

The match was suspended for just over 20 minutes after home fans hurled objects onto the pitch as Real celebrated their opener. Read more at straitstimes.com.