Leading off today’s news is Tampa Bay Rowdies’ announced partnership with Norwich City FC. I think this is a fascinating idea, and one that I’m surprised more clubs haven’t explored. Yes, there’s the partnership between FC Dallas and Bayern Munich (which has already resulted in Chris Richards’ ascendancy in Germany), but there’s also the ill-fated Rayo OKC and Rayo Vallecano project that resulted in spectacular failure. Other examples include all of the Manchester City (NYCFC, Melbourne City FC, plus a few others) and Red Bull properties (Leipzig, Strasbourg, New York, and others), to say nothing of gazillionaires that own several top flight soccer clubs like Stan Kroenke.

Ok, so maybe this sort of partnership is more common than we really think. When Louisville City was disentangling itself from Orlando City back in 2015, Wayne Estopinal mentioned to me (and probably others) that he was more interested in partnering with a foreign club with a similar identity than re-affiliating with another MLS team. I’m guessing he got that idea from Flavio Augusto Da Silva, who had recently purchased a majority stake in Orlando City that allowed them to pay the entry fee to MLS and had partnerships with Benfica and a club in Brazil.

I bring all of this up to pose the question: What foreign club lines up best with Louisville City’s identity? Who’s got a recent history of winning back-to -back trophies? Whose roster is loaded with the best players in its league? What club aspires to be the best it can be while consistently shaming all of its rivals? What club (not Fiorentina) has an affinity for the color purple?

The answer is obvious: It’s Real Madrid. Brad Estes looks forward to your call, Florentino. Other stuff: