SEVERAL famous Brits living in Spain have decided to seal their links with their adopted country and become Spanish citizens after Brexit.
Ex-footballer and sports commentator Michael Robinson (first picture) made his début with the Spanish national radio and television broadcaster TVE in 1989 – two years after he left the UK to finish his career on the pitch with Club Atlético Osasuna, based in Pamplona.
Since 1990 he has been one of the most recognisable voices on Canal+, where he was joint presenter with Carlos Martínez, and he has won two Premios Ondas ('Airwaves Awards') and the Vázquez Montalbán International Journalism Award.
The Leicester-born 61-year-old would not have been able to vote in the June 2016 referendum on Brexit, since he had been resident outside the UK for more than 15 years, and he does not mince his words over his opposition to the country's leaving the European Union and what he thinks of those who are leading the procedure.
“I've already started the process of getting Spanish nationality,” Robinson reveals.
“I refuse to be a foreigner in a country that has opened its arms and its homes to me.”
John Carlin, 63, was the first reporter to interview David Beckham after he signed for Real Madrid and, as well as numerous British and US newspapers and television channels, he has worked in Argentina, where he lived for a while as a child since his British father was ambassador there, and also for El País.
Born to a Spanish mother, Carlin (second picture) did not have any problems in obtaining nationality in his adopted country.
He says he actually feels 'relieved' about Brexit happening tomorrow, even though he is strongly against it.
“After three-and-a-half years of fighting, it finally won't be in my life any more,” Carlin says.
“I feel like you do in those complex marriages where one of the two is battling to save the relationship and, suddenly, realises it's impossible and decides, that's it, stuff you, it's over.
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