We Are The Champions

British success on the football pitch featured large over the next two years. "Celtic, The Greatest" was the headline on 26 May 1967 that greeted victory over Inter Milan, albeit the headline didn't make the front page. On 30 May 1968, however, "Manchester Are Champs" had pride of place in recording United's European Cup win over Benfica.

By contrast, Spanish successes were far more understated. On 23 June 1964 a short piece on an inside page announced Spain's win over the Soviet Union in the European Nations Cup, a piece notable though for the fact that it barely mentioned the match but emphasised a performance that "could not be classed as good" by English referee Mr. Holland. Forty-four years later, such Anglo-centricity had disappeared, Spanish girls showing a good deal of flesh appearing on the front page on 1 July and "Heroes Welcome" being splashed over two more pages; Spain's 44 years of footballing hurt were over.

Manuel Santana did at least make it to the front page on 2 July 1966. "Olé Manolo!", Santana had won Wimbledon but in a final that "was hardly a fair reflection on the talent available", Australia's Roy Emerson having been injured earlier in the tournament. Santana's mother, reported as not understanding tennis, didn't know what it was all about. His brothers, though, had jumped for joy at the sixth-floor apartment in Madrid that they shared with their mother and Manuel. On 7 June 2005 it was a very different story and a very different treatment. Rafael Nadal's first victory in a Grand Slam tournament (the French Open) warranted a double-page spread.

Back on the football field, the paper charted - and still does chart, thanks nowadays to Monro Bryce's "Fan's View" - the ups and downs of the island's main football club. "First Division For Real Mallorca!" (10 June 1969) featured a brief report of the match against Alcoyano that confirmed promotion. "Fire-crackers and rockets were let off, adding to the jubilation of the crowd", fans running onto the pitch and carrying their heroes off the field on their shoulders.

The club's changing fortunes were such that, on 29 January 1980, "fans galore who had apparently forgotten Palma's Third Division club Real Mallorca over the last two years flocked back to the city's Luis Sitjar Stadium" for what was the match of the season - against Poblense of Sa Pobla. Both teams were in fact in the Balearics section of the Third Division. In 2003, on 29 June, the greatest moment in the club's history made the front page. "Victory", Samuel Eto'o had fired Mallorca "to glory" in the Copa del Rey.

23 June 1964. Spain won the European Nations Cup and ... "Misses" arrived in Palma for the Second Festival of Beauty and Elegance and the Grand Coronation of "Miss Nations" at the Hotel de Mar. The Rory Storm And The Hurricanes "beat group" was playing in Palma. Apartments "within reach of all pocket books (?)" were advertised for sale in "the most aristocratic tourist zone" 125 yards from the beach of Cala Mayor from 250,000 pesetas (slightly less than 1,500 pounds).

31 July 1966. England won the World Cup and ... blonde 20-year-old Kirstin Gillwick, a Swedish secretary, was chosen, by an all-male jury, as the "Daily Bulletin's Miss Happy Day for July".

30 May 1968. Manchester United won the European Cup and ... Tito's nightclub announced its re-opening summer show for 1 June. The stars? The Barron Knights.

10 June 1969. Real Mallorca were promoted and ... the Sunday bullfight in Palma was described as "a cloudy and boring bullfight" and both bulls and bullfighters came in for criticism. "They were not presentable bulls," said Cortijares, the bullfighting correspondent. "They had some fire but had no strength, neither did they impose respect." One of the bullfighters did not know how to fight. "He killed his first bull badly and the second with two jabs and one thrust." Another fighter, Bejarano, "produced some decorative passes, but he did not fight properly". "He was given a warning over his second bull, which means that he took too long over killing it." The bullfight report, it might be noted, was very much more detailed than the football report.