Article 50 — Real Madrid, Galaticos No More.
Real Madrid, the richest club in the world is one of the most glamorous destinations for players to go to. Famously under the reign of Florentino Perez from the beginning of the new Millenium, they introduced the glamorous concept of assembling the biggest names in the world of football. This era was famously known as the Galaticos era.
Before Perez, Massimo Moratti had already begun his version of the Galaticos in Italian football at Inter after his appointment as club President in 1995. Perez would upstage that for his ability to fork out big money season after season to land one marquee name each season.
He started with Luis Figo in 2000 and followed that up with Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Robinho and Sergio Ramos. Ramon Calderon took over as club President in 2006. He didn’t quite have the same Galaticos mindset but still assembled some notable names. He signed Fabio Cannavaro, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Gonzalo Higuain, Mesut Ozil, Arjen Robben, Wesley Sneijder, Pepe, Rafael van der Vaart and Klaas Jan Huntelaar.
Perez was back in 2009 and immediately went about his business in typical starry fashion. He signed Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema, Xabi Alonso, Angel Di Maria, Luka Modric, Gareth Bale, Toni Kroos and James Rodriguez.
In Perez’s first spell at the club from 2000–2006, Real Madrid only won 1 Champions League, 1 Intercontinental Cup,1 UEFA Super Cup, 2 Supercopa de Espana and 2 La Liga titles. It was also a chaotic period with lots of players and managers leaving. Perez was always looking for a quick fix, believing that by signing a megastar, Real Madrid would be successful again. That was of course not the case as Real struggled to hit the heights expected of them owning largely to the lack of stability at the club.
Calderon’s spell wasn’t any better. Real only won 2 La Liga and 1 Supercopa de Espana from 2006–2009. Perez returned for his second spell as the club’s President in 2009 and did better than he did in his first spell. Real won 2 La Ligas, 3 Supercopa de Espana, 2 Copa del Rey, 3 UEFA Super Cup and 4 FIFA Club World Cup. The biggest achievement was securing the club’s 10th Champions League/European Cup title known as the La Decima and a hat-trick of consecutive Champions League triumphs from 2015–16 to 2017–18.
Perez deserves credit for assembling a team that is better in terms of balance and stability than in his first era. There is also the presence of one mega-star, one of the world’s best talent, Cristiano Ronaldo in this team. He has helped Real Madrid to European dominance. It is also telling that since his departure in the summer of 2018, Real Madrid has not looked the same.
The club has shifted focus from signing big-name stars to signing younger players. The biggest name players signed in the last two seasons have been Thibaut Courtois and his former Chelsea team-mate, Eden Hazard a season after. The switch has been interesting from the big-money, big-name signings that we are accustomed to signing lesser-known young players.
The team has been in transition since Ronaldo’s departure, only winning the FIFA Club World Cup and Supercopa de Espana. In Europe, Real Madrid might still be a big name but doesn’t have that fear factor that it used to have. They are still in the running to qualify from the Round of 16 this season despite losing the first leg 1–2 at home to Manchester City. At home in Spain, they are only 2 points behind Barcelona with 11 matches to go. Barcelona too do not look like their former powerful, imperious self so the La Liga is still up for grabs. Real are already out of the Copa del Rey.
This transitional period is Zinedine Zidane’s first real test in his managerial career since being reinstated at the back of the 2018–19 season. People would put down his previous triumphs to the availability of a high-quality balanced team, a world-class star in Cristiano Ronaldo and the intelligence to not mess the team about. With lesser established, younger players at his disposal now and without star man, Cristiano Ronaldo can he get Real Madrid winning again?
It is perhaps unfair to expect a young team to start winning immediately but it comes with the territory of being a Real Madrid player. The fans demand incessant success as does the President. Personally, I will be glad if Real can knock Manchester City out of the Champions League and win the La Liga. I am not a Real Madrid fan but I would love to see City get knocked out as a Manchester United fan.
For La Liga, I feel there needs to be some freshness at the top of La Liga like the other big European leagues. Barcelona has dominated the La Liga in recent seasons and there needs to be a change at the top. Ideally, it would be nice if someone other than Barcelona or Real won the league as Atletico Madrid did in 2013–14 but since no-one else is close in the running, it would have to be Real instead of Barcelona.
