An ode to Angel Di Maria at Real & the best assist you’ve never seen

I’m going to start this article by showing you the best Real Madrid goal you haven’t seen before.

It came in the Spanish club’s pre-season demolition of Guangzhou Evergrande back in 2011, but don’t make the mistake of thinking the standard of opposition in any way lessens the quality on show.

Angel Di Maria was about to embark on his second season in Madrid after playing his part for a team which scored 102 goals – including 29 in its last six games of the season – yet still couldn’t beat Barcelona to the title.

Jose Callejon had returned to his boyhood club that summer, while the arrival of Hamit Altintop from Bayern Munich provided further competition for places. Di Maria would know the pressure was on to keep up the good work and show Jose Mourinho he still had that je ne sais quoi.

Against Guangzhou, he did just that, showing the kind of pace and control rarely even seen in the Madrid squad.

To beat your man with stepovers is one thing, but to barely miss a beat before curling in a perfect rabona cross is another. It’s so special that I wasn’t sure whether ‘curling’ or ‘rabona’ would be the right word to italicise in that sentence.

Di Maria was somehow both the archetype of a Real Madrid player and the opposite of that model, both at once. From that point of view, it almost makes perfect sense that he was among the first signings made by Mourinho, himself both perfect for the club and the last thing they needed.

Mourinho had inherited Cristiano Ronaldo from Manuel Pellegrini, but he had also been handed a number of players whose race had been run at the highest level, with local heroes Raul and Guti among those moving on in the same summer that Di Maria joined from Benfica.

Joining Real Madrid as a creative player in