FEATURE
Home comforts – Kay enjoyed a look around the Riverside with Tees Life when she came back to see family and friends recently .
Proud – Middlesbrough-born Kay is a lifelong Boro fan .
Kay bagged her first job as a trained journalist on The Hendon Times in North-West London . Then , just nine months later , she made the amazing leap to Real Madrid TV , the Spanish football club ’ s first international channel . “ When I told the editor , he said ‘ In my 25 years as an editor a lot of people have come in and told me they were leaving but no one has ever left for such a great job ’.”
Having initially been employed behind the scenes to write news bulletins , she rose to host the Englishspeaking channel ’ s flagship show , travelling with the starstudded team throughout the world during a six-year stay in the Spanish capital .
Name-dropping time ! Kay rubbed shoulders with such football royalty as Cristiano Ronaldo , Jose Mourinho , Ruud van Nistelrooy , Fabio Cannavaro , Arjen Robben , Kaka and Mesut Ozil .
She grins . “ If ( goalkeeper ) Iker Casillas was receiving an award from UNICEF , we ’ d cover it so we ’ d be on a private jet with him to Geneva . I can ’ t lie , it was a brilliant job ” But one of the highlights of her first season was meeting England and Manchester United legend David Beckham . She recalls : “ Beckham was lovely – always very nice with people , though you did get a sense there was a barrier around him ; a line that you couldn ’ t cross . Until Cristiano Ronaldo joined Real , I ’ d never seen such a demand for somebody ’ s attention .
“ But David was always very nice to deal with – and yes , he was better looking in real life than I ’ d seen in pictures !”
But she has an admission to make . “ I must be the only female in Spain who met David Beckham but gave him the ‘ Pleased to meet you ’ handshake instead of a kiss on both cheeks , which is the Spanish tradition .
“ I got so excited about meeting him for the first time , having come of age watching him . I did my hair and my makeup but it was only as my taxi got near the training ground that I had that awful heartsinking moment when I realised I had forgotten to clean my teeth . I think it ’ s because I ’ d been chewing gum , so had that minty taste in my mouth . So , when I met him , I just stuck my hand out instead of giving him two kisses – though the next time I met him I made sure I got right in there !”
Another major perk of the job was having a stylist and makeup artist before every show .
“ You ’ d go on air looking a million dollars ,” she recalls . “ You ’ d also have stunning new clothes to wear every day , which we could borrow for nights out , though we only got to keep them on special occasions .”
It was a dream job – but this football fairytale took a new twist
12