Casillas still savours league triumph

Real Madrid captain Iker Casillas may have been dropped from the starting line-up recently, but the veteran goalkeeper can still look back at 2012 with pride.

This year Casillas has led both his club side and national team to important titles with Real crowned La Liga champions at the close of last season before lifting the European Championship with Spain in the summer.

Real's La Liga triumph was particularly sweet for Casillas as it marked the end of a run of successive league triumphs for arch-rivals Barcelona. In fact, Madrid actually stamped their authority on La Liga last season by beating Barcelona 2-1 in El Clasico at Camp Nou in April to extend their lead to seven points with just four games left.

"Above all I remember the league title, which was very difficult after so many years," Casillas said on the Real Madrid website.

"This is the path that we must follow and enjoy winning a difficult and hard championship during which many records were broken and we experienced some very good times, such as winning at the Camp Nou with four or five matchdays left, when we practically decided the league title."

He added: "On a personal level, 2012 has brought us very interesting and beautiful memories and I hope the successes of 2012 are repeated next year."

Real certainly have not been able to sustain last season's domestic dominance into the current campaign. Last weekend's 1-1 draw with Malaga left the Spanish champions a massive 16 points behind leaders Barcelona in this season's title race.

The draw with Malaga was unique in that manager Jose Mourinho chose to start with back-up goalkeeper Antonio Adan in place of long-serving number one Casillas.

The pair have since played down the incident while the Portuguese tactician says he is looking forward to spending some time with family during the festive period.

"It is time to be with your family, especially for my family since we have been away from home for nine years and Christmas is the only opportunity we have to be with our closest family," Mourinho said.

"The best thing has been watching my children grow up happy and healthy and to know I have a fantastic family and that those family members in Portugal are all healthy and waiting to enjoy Christmas with us.

"In professional terms, we won La Liga this year, which was something I hadn't achieved before, and it was one of the club's main objectives for 2012".

Real Madrid kick-off the New Year on January 6th against Real Sociedad.