German Car Scene

AUDI POWER FOR THE NEW GENERATION OF THE GALACTICS

Posted 29th October, 2009 in Audi | Leave a comment

What do Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi and Franck Ribéry have in common? All three are exceptional international soccer players and, like their teammates, travel to their daily practice sessions in Audi vehicles. Today, the players of Spanish record champion Real Madrid received their new models. The cars ranking at the top of Christoph Metzelder, Xavi Alonso, Kaká & company’s list of favorites: the Audi Q7, Audi A5 Cabrio and Audi RS 6.

The Spanish fall has mild air temperatures of 20 degrees centigrade – but today the players of Spanish record champion Real Madrid ventured out on terrain that was both chilly and unknown: At Xanadu Snow Park, an 18,000-square meter ski hall on the outskirts of Madrid, the super stars completed a driving safety training program on snow including a slalom course and maneuvering drive with the Audi A5 coupe and TTS models. The reason for this unusual excursion: Players and officials received their new cars from their vehicle partner Audi.

Since 2003, the brand with the four rings has been the partner of the soccer team from Madrid which has embarked on forming a new team of the Galactics around their prominent new signings Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaká. The team has been nicknamed Galactics for years due to its numerous national and international exploits. 31 Spanish champion’s titles, 17 cup wins, nine Champions League victories and three exploits in the World Cup are just a small extract from the club’s more than 100-year history. After going through a period of hard times, the team is now tackling the battle against its traditional rival FC Barcelona again with high-caliber reinforcements.

The Audi Q7 is clearly the most popular car with the soccer players: As many as nine of them, including Xavi Alonso, Guti, Raúl and Ruud van Nistelrooy, opted for the model with the 3-liter TDI engine. National team captain Iker Casillas and the German Christoph Metzelder are thrilled with the Q5 fitted with the same engine, while the former Bundesliga star Rafael van der Vaart banks on efficiency and absolute fitness for day-to-day driving in packed urban conditions with his A3 Sportback. Another popular car that, for instance, has won the favors of Royston Drenthe and Karim Benzema is the new Audi A5 convertible. Cristiano Ronaldo will not just go full throttle on the playing field in the future: He selected the 580-hp Audi RS 6 in black.

AUDI AG is not only the partner of Real Madrid but also on the ball with other international top-class teams: The collaboration with Champions League winner FC Barcelona started in 2006 and since 2002 Audi has had a close partnership with FC Bayern München. In addition, Audi – via its importers – also supports AC Milan as well as the teams of Manchester United, AS Monaco, Ajax Amsterdam and Red Bull Salzburg.

[Source: Audi]