The Good, The Bad, The WTF

Quick! Describe the first thing that comes to mind when I say Junior Barranquilla. If you said anything other than “dunno”, I salute you. For the American sports fan, this club should be best known as where Carlos Valderrama (he with the hair) was playing club ball during his Colombian NT heyday. Then he came to MLS and walked around in midfield for a couple of years.

OK, you are excused if you didn’t know about one of Junior Barranquilla’s (that’s a club, by the way) greatest ever players. In fact, they weren’t even called Junior Barranquilla 16 years ago. Nope they were Atletico Junior. The name change is recent, within the last two years I think, but pinning down the when and why is difficult.

What’s not difficult is pinning down a couple of overblown legends of the team on their wikipedia page. The first paragraph ends with a listing of past legends, including Heleno de Freitas, Garrincha(!), Juan Ramón Verón, and Julio Cesar Uribe. Here’s the reality:
Heleno de Freitas–died 50 years ago, may have had 6 months in town.
Garrincha–Brazilian legend. Suited up for one game.
Juan Ramón Verón–Estudiantes legend. Played in town for one season. Did win double with club. Fathered Juan Sebastian Veron.
Julios Cesar Uribe–Former Peru NT coach, Spent one season at the club.
How’s that for a legends section? At least Valderrama stuck around for two seasons (and won two league championships).

But, despite appearances, I’m not here to bag on a club and their lack of legendary names. Nope, I’m here to elicit some chuckles with their latest shirt. Specifically, their shirt sponsor. Here, look:

I don’t know why, exactly, but this just tickles me. Now, I can’t find a website for Pastas La Muñeca, but I did find their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Let me know if you have a better chance at being their Facebook friend than UF did.

Anyway, it’s, apparently, a pasta company. One that, if my Spanish holds, gives you “The Energy You Need”. So what’s up with the girl? It’s like a take off of some (hopeful non-sexualized) Manga character. I expect her to be friends with a mewing cat, not selling me freeze-dried pasta. Anyway, this is what the shirt looks like on an actual player mimicking her thumbs-up gesture.

The sad thing is, that with (almost) any other sponsor, this shirt works just fine. I mean, it has some stupid, Puma-screws-up-everything stuff going on, but so what? That sponsor logo makes all of that irrelevant by just too girly and childish. And what would Carlos Valderrama (or Garrincha) say about that?