CHAPTER 32: Florentino Perez Resigns --- The End of the Real Madrid 'Galactico' Era

“In the eyes of empire builders men are not men but instruments” - Napoleon Bonaparte

Florentino Perez, the leader of Real Madrid Club de Futbol, has resigned. And he did it by himself. His dismissal took place last Monday (27/02/2006), and the subsequently “shell-shock” news came out in the various forms of media & press on that day and on the day after.
……So, what’s the big deal about this man, Florentino Perez?

From the little info that I know about him, Perez is a successful, rich & influential businessman. A well known & respected figure in Spain and more so in the Spanish capital. The spectacle he wears and his appearances on the press where I’ve always seen him wearing a suit, he looks like an intelligent, quiet and reserved man, but one that looks that he wields a powerful control over a big organization, and one that looks that no one would dare raise a war against him (a la Vito Corleone).
But Perez, especially since the last 5-6 years, is best and widely known for one thing: that is that he was the man who had sat upon the top of the hierarchy of one of football/soccer’s biggest ‘dynasty’. Florentino Perez was ……the president of Real Madrid.

The tale of today’s post I will recount in my view; is that of the creation and rise of an empire that was spearheaded by one man, ……and ultimately the destruction and downfall of that same empire due to the ambitions and arrogance of that same man that lead that same empire. Florentino Perez’s ‘Galacticos’.

Perez’s was first elected president in summer of 2000. During his first several years as president, it was a “happy time” for him, Real Madrid and especially the Real Madrid fans (the Madridistas). From 2000 to 2003, Vicente del Bosque was the coach of the football team. Real Madrid won a Champions League and 2 Liga titles during this period of time (when Perez was at power).
But it was during this time that one word was coined from Perez’s regime. That word is ‘Galactico’.
I’m not sure so sure about how it came about, but I’m sure that it’s during this period that the term Galactico was born.
You see, since 2000 to 2003, in each season Perez had always bought in one of the world’s best footballers to Real Madrid. Each of these footballers possessed the characteristics of a superstar footballer. Great skills, an indispensable asset for both club & country, widely known around the PLANET, an awesome persona, big role models, darlings of various advertisements and publishing deals for all sorts of companies, and lastly, …. WORLD CLASS in every right of Football.
These superstars/Galacticos (in order) that were bought by Real Madrid by Perez was: Luis Figo (2000), Zinedine Zidane (2001), Ronaldo (2002) and David Beckham (2003). Besides them, there were already two Galacticos who were already at the club before Perez took power: the forward Raúl Gonzalez (captain at both Real Madrid and for Spain) and the Brazilian leftback Roberto Carlos.

Perez had a vision. That vision was to recruit all the world’s best players, and let them play together and representing the flagship of Real Madrid. His vision was also that since he can make a team full of superstars play with each other, that it would bring success on the pitch, and in the end win titles & trophies for the club. And when you got a team full of superstars winning the major trophies, it would then become the ‘marketing’ and ‘business’ tools to attract and ‘brainwash’ more fans, supporters to support Real Madrid and also bring in investors & business deals to Real Madrid.
And for the first few years, it worked. As stated before, 2 Liga titles and a Champions League. And under del Bosque, Real Madrid was playing one of the best & breathtaking football attacking football in the world (& that was bloody hard to admit). I still remember, on a neutral view (where Barça not included) the match between Man United and Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the Champions League in 2003, was one of the best football matches I’ve seen in my life! Pure, pure football (it was reportedly this game that brought the attention of football to Roman Abramovich, who later bought Chelsea Football Club).
Yes, it was during this time that Real Madrid was one of the most renowned football clubs in the world. They played great football, and they had ‘superstars’. And all their players had won some of football’s top prizes (World Cup, European Nations Cup, Copa America, various league titles and of course the Champions League, alongside some top-notch individual awards and honors). Each Madrid game was a glittering affair where on the turf of Santiago Bernabeu, it was a fantastic collection of some of football’s best talents on display. Madridistas were living the dream………..
But it had all gone wrong.

Perez's downfall was 'caused by this matter: his own thought that having the best footballers in the same team on the pitch is enough to win you games. The Spanish press had coined the term "Zidanes y Pavones" (Zidanes' and Pavons') policy under Perez, one that consists of mixing a team with the world's best players such as Zidane with the club's youth development players such as Pavon. It also must be mentioned that he was also obsessed with buying attacking players. For you see, Figo is a winger, Zidane is a maestro as an attacking midfielder and playmaker, Ronaldo is a striker and Beckham also is a winger. Furthermore, Raul is a forward, whereas Roberto Carlos is an attacking fullback (one who likes to push forward a lot). Perez's negligence in bringing defensive reinforcements in the early period of his tenure proved costly (in his final years, the defence of Real Madrid was one that could even be exploited by the lower clubs on the lower side of La Liga table).
In addition, there was also the fact of the term Galactico. Perez wanted everything to be in a Galactico sense. Because of this Galactico meaning, to him, brings in the big bucks. In a way it's true, but it's a dangerous card to play with. And Perez being a businessman first rather than a proper football club president was another fact that bought about his demise in Real Madrid.
The thing about Perez is that he bought all those Galacticos, besides bought for playing great football, was also bought in for their marketing purposes. The marketing purposes that each Galactico had could be fully exploited by Perez and his team in order to make Real Madrid rich (and the best in the world), most notably through the sales of the jerseys of these Galacticos around the world. And with each Galactico, each one of them has their own 'charisma' and magnetically have the ability to pull and attract anybody in the world to support them, where subsequently they would be supporting Real Madrid, and where subsequently each would buy any kind of Real Madrid merchandise up for sale, and subsequently it would bring benefits and dividends to Real Madrid. This was Perez's dream and vision for his beloved club.
However (and as stated before), Perez is obsessed with everything Galactico. He thinks that superstars ought to play the football, and those who do not fit the term as a 'Galactico' should be shipped off, as they do not have the capacity to bring in the money like the Galactico do. In the end, some of Real Madrid's players who were not deemed Galactico enough were sold by Real Madrid. Among those infamously kicked out by 'Real Madrid' were Fernando Redondo, Fernando Hierro, Steve McManaman, Fernando Morientes, Claude Makelele and Santiago Solari. Each of these players were excellent footballers in their own right. They themselves were the basis of a successful Real Madrid team before and after Perez came to power. Redondo was one of Madrid's best midfielders (remember the game when Madrid visited Old Trafford in 2000? Redondo was instrumental for Madrid's victory in that match), Hierro was a big, tall and vocal leader of the team as he was the most seniority and captain of Real Madrid, Makelele is one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, both McManaman and Solari are good wingers, and whereas before Ronaldo came, there was the striker Morientes.

(L-R): Redondo, Hierro, McManaman, Morientes, Makelele & Solari

All were sold by Madrid, as it seemed that they did not fit the vision of Perez's. There was also the problem of Hierro voicing out his displeasure towards Perez (which would brought to his exit from the club), and Makelele's frustration at his salary cap.

There was another problem.
Each of the Galacticos had big salaries, and big bonuses. But none of the lesser players at the club earn as much as the Galacticos do. Makelele was one of them. He demanded to have a raise in his salary (after Beckham came). Perez wanted none of it, and off Makelele was sold to Chelsea. Iker Casillas is one of their best performers (saving Real Madrid's a-s in mostly every game), but even he does not have a Galactico salary!

And from here came another big problem, that was proved to be the downfall of the Real Madrid footballing team. Perez demanded from his coaches that each Galactico should play every game, no matter what, as it's what the fans wanted to see and it would bring in cash from those gate tickets that they buy. This lead to the few and limited chances that the non-Galactico had at the team, so they could not improve themselves, as the Galactico always was first-choiced picked for any game.
It was said that the Real Madrid team, and it's match selection, was always that of Perez's, not the coaches.
During his tenure, coaches came and go. There were six of them during his leadership. All were 'sacked' in a way, except for the final one, López Caro (as he was still coach when Perez resigned).

(L-R): Vicente del Bosque, Carlos Queiroz, José Antonio Camacho, Mariano García Remón, Vanderlei Luxemburgo, Juan Ramón López Caro

Plus, each of the Galacticos had grown older. They are now either above 30 or near 30, most of them losing their touch and finesse and as not as who they were or performed like before. They were some matches throughout the last couple of years that had highlighted the fall of these Galacticos (alongside the entire Real Madrid team). The defeat againts Zaragoza in the 2004 Copa del Rey Final, exit againts Monaco in the Champions League quarterfinal in 2004, those last few games from the 2003-2004 La Liga games (towards the end of that season) where they dramatically lose each game and drastically self-destructed (and had each Galactico sent off in each game), last year's defeat to Bilbao at the Santiago Bernabeu and defeat to Getafe in the league, the defeats againts Barça (last year and the year before) and the defeat against Zaragoza again in this year's Copa del Rey.
The Galacticos themselves have been going through a landslide decline throughout these last couple of years or so. Figo was already sold before the beginning of this season (to Inter), Zidane’s getting older and evidently no longer could cope up with today’s football pace like he’s used to, Ronaldo got both public and personal problems on and off the pitch (he’s fat, his spat with the fans, & talks about his loyalty to Madrid, etc.), Beckham is Beckham (a good player but overrated as a super world class player ever since his Man U days). Raúl’s performances had been alarmingly dwindling down since Ronaldo came to the club and Roberto Carlos is no more like before (although he still complains and take a swipe at Barça, like the time he kept saying “we’ll be leaders in three weeks…”).

(L-R): Judas, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham, Raúl,Roberto Carlos

The Real Madrid team throughout the last couple of years had not possessed the same chemistry and team work and coordination as before among each other when they play a match.

Finally, Perez also blundered in making some signings for the club. In his last couple of years at the helm of Real Madrid, the club had signed some players who did not turn out to be the expected answers and aid that they had hoped for. Walter Samuel and Michael Owen were bought in 2004 (Samuel had the nickname "El Murro" (the Wall) when he was at AS Roma, as he was one of the best defenders there, and Owen was the goldenboy of Liverpool and England.). They were sold in just a season at the club. Also, Jonathan Woodgate was bought in as another defender, but didn't even play in his first entire season, and this season he's still plighted by injuries (Woodgate was bought for an expensive price). And then at the beginning of this season, Real Madrid bought Julio Baptista from Sevilla and Robinho from Santos (as well as Sergio Ramos, Pablo Garcia, Diogo, Cicinho, Cassano...) who had heavy price tags. At this moment, only Robinho and Sergio Ramos seemed to be good buys for the club (although Robinho's performances still doesn't justify his price tag).

(L-R): Samuel, Owen, Woodgate, Baptista & Robinho

But perhaps one of the most …. (not sure what’s the proper word) mistake by Perez was he and also his board decided to buy Beckham instead of ……Ronaldinho. It was reported before that Madrid could have signed Ronnie, but Perez went with Beckham (since Beckham was the ‘hottest’ player around the globe with his marketing and business appeal). Legend has it that there was a statement from one of Perez’s board members saying about the signing of Beckham: “Ronaldinho is too ugly. He’’s not good for our marketing purposes to attract more people to the club. Look at Beckham. He’s so handsome that he’ll make the whole of Asia fall in love with us, and he’ll make the whole of Asia want to make love with us”.
Madrid got Beckham. Ronnie signed with Barça………..and the rest is history.

And Perez's popularity was evidently splitted throughout his time. Some supported him, some wanted him out. It's been two years now that Real Madrid have been trophyless. And this season, it looks like it's gonna be the third season that Real Madrid fail to achieve any championship (went out in Copa del Rey semi-finals earlier in February, having to overcome Arsenal at Highbury with a one goal deficit in the Champions League next week, and with Barça 10 points above in La Liga and seemingly close to that second successive La Liga title...)

To sum it all up, Perez's leadership of the club was very costly and fatal, and all those matters that I had mentioned above combined brought upon his own downfall.
The thing that I would like to point out is that what Perez did is comparable to any legacy or any empire that came up and crumbled down.
Throughout history.
Think about the Roman empire.
Then there's also Enron. Imelda Marcos. Or yet, what about Malaysia's very own MAS Airlines? Empires are created and they conquer, but ultimately they will be brought down as a new power rises and overtakes their throne.

I also gotta stress that Real Madrid is not your "normal" football club. This is a club (like Futbol Club Barcelona) that is always under scrutiny and observation from all sorts of people everyday. Like one article stated about Real Madrid, it's a place where even a storm could happen in a tea cup. The club itself has two sports-based newspapers that cover on a day-to-day basis on the club's daily happenings; Marca and AS (the opposites of the pro-FC Barcelona based sports newspapers: SPORT and Mundo Deportivo). Just imagine the sh-tload of burden that Perez carries on his shoulders as president of Real Madrid. And not mentioning very, very fickle and ultra-demanding supporters.

At the end of the day, what I want is that Real Madrid suffer. Whenever they lose or having a bad time, it's always a good time for any Barcelonista. I always wish the worst for these white a-s/Galactic sons of b-tches. The more they go down, the better (this is sports rivalry, I can't help it).
Florentino Perez could have created one of the best footballing legacies in world football, and though that many people will remember him for his successes at his time with Real Madrid, he will always be remembered also as being associated with his wrongdoings and the failure of his project at Real Madrid, the Galactico project.......

The last emperor - Phil Ball (Soccernet)