The galactic

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The Galactic ( spanish Los Galácticos ) is a term for the collection of world famous football gamblers at the football club Real Madrid . The Spanish term Galácticos came about during Florentino Pérez's first presidency, which ran from 2000 to 2006, when he made it his mission to sign a new superstar, a Galáctico ,every year. The plural Galácticos stands for both the Real Madrid team at the time and the players who were signed during that period.

The name is mentioned in positive and negative context. Originally it was used by the Spanish press as a term for the peculiarity and extraordinary nature of the accumulation of world stars. Later, after the untitled years in the second half of Florentino Pérez's first presidency, Galácticos was repeatedly associated with “good marketing opportunities” and “short-term successes”.

Above all, the fact that the “Galáctico principle” could not prevail in the long term contributed to a more negative terminology. In the meantime, however, Pérez has returned as president after Ramón Calderón's resignation in 2009 and is pursuing a similar transfer policy as in his first term , interrupted by a quieter phase under coach and sports director José Mourinho .

The first Galáctico era

Although the name Galácticos only got its current meaning under Florentino Pérez, the origins can be found much earlier in the history of Real Madrid.

In the early 1950s, President Santiago Bernabéu , after whom Real Madrid's home stadium is named today, began signing what were arguably the best players in the world at the time. Between 1953 and 1958, players such as Héctor Rial , Francisco Gento , Alfredo Di Stéfano , José Santamaría , Ferenc Puskás and Raymond Kopa joined the club and formed a kind of world selection that included the first five events of the current from 1956 to 1960 won the newly launched European Champion’s Cup.

Los Galácticos

The first Galáctico era began in 2000 with the signing of Luís Figo and ended at the latest when David Beckham switched to the MLS in 2007 .

The original Galácticos were:

Season
of commitment 		player previous club Transfer fee
in euros 		Farewell
to Madrid 		new club
2000/01 Luís Figo Fc barcelona.svg FC Barcelona 60,000,000 2005 Inter Old Logo (2007-2014) .svg Inter Milan
2001/02 Zinedine Zidane Juventus Turin.svg Juventus Turin 73,500,000 2006 End of career
2002/03 Ronaldo Inter Old Logo (2007-2014) .svg Inter Milan 45,000,000 2007 AC Milan Logo.svg AC Milan
2003/04 David Beckham Manchester United FC.svg Manchester United 37,500,000 2007 Los angeles galaxy.svg LA Galaxy
2004/05 Michael Owen Liverpool FC.svg Liverpool FC 12,000,000 +
Antonio Nuñez 		2005 Newcastle United Logo.svg Newcastle United

At the beginning of the 2005/06 season , the Brazilian winger Robinho was signed by FC Santos for 24 million euros. Usually, however, he is not referred to as a galactic , because when he arrived in Madrid he was not considered a mature world-class player, but rather a highly talented young player.

There are also divided opinions about the status of Michael Owen. In some eyes he was not considered a Galáctico due to the comparatively low transfer fee, the poorer marketing potential and his rather minor role in the team (mostly only acted as a substitute) .

The new signings were supplemented by established and self-trained players. These include:

history

Pérez becomes president

Florentino Pérez

The Galácticos project began in July 2000 with the upcoming presidential election. After 1998, Los Blancos had just won their eighth Champions League title and everything looked to be the re-election of incumbent Lorenzo Sanz . But Pérez had learned from the mistakes of his first candidacy in 1995 (he lost the election to Ramón Mendoza with around 700 votes) and, in addition to his criticism of the club's mismanagement, focused above all on expensive newcomers and an aggressive transfer policy . He promised that if he won the presidential election, captain and crowd favorite Luís Figo would break away from arch rivals FC Barcelona and present it as a new purchase.

Pérez was able to win the election with 16,469 votes against 13,302 votes for Sanz and only a few days later he kept his election promise by signing the Portuguese international for around 60 million euros and presenting it as the first new commitment. At the time, this 60 million was the highest transfer fee ever paid for a football player. However, that should change the following year with the transfer of the French Zinédine Zidane . Pérez transferred 73.5 million euros to Juventus Turin and, in addition to setting a new transfer record, created the Galácticos .

In the course of the redevelopment measures, Pérez sold the old training ground ( Ciudad Deportiva , "German Sports City" ) for 487 million euros to the private companies OHL , Repsol , Mutua Madrileña and Sacyr Vallehermoso in order to repay the club's liabilities . The deal was not without criticism, because the high sales price of the approximately 14 hectare area on the Paseo de la Castellana was achieved by re-zoning the land that was previously only used for sporting purposes. In return, the city of Madrid marketed part of the site itself. The Cuatro Torres Business Area skyscraper complex was built on the former property of the association . The reorganization of the association continued during Pérez's presidency. Part of the money was used to build a new, state-of-the-art training center, Ciudad Real Madrid , which has been used for training since 2005.

The new transfer concept was initially called Zidanes y Pavones . Expensive newcomers (like Zidane) should be combined with talented and strong players of their own (like the then up-and-coming Francisco Pavón ).

Quick success

Shortly after the first “major purchases”, the Galácticos model seemed to be proving its worth. In 2001 they became superior champions and also provided the Pichichi with Raúl González .

Zinédine Zidane decided the Champions League final with an artificial shot in 2002 , which they won 2-1 against Bayer 04 Leverkusen . In the following season, the 29th championship title was won. New signing Ronaldo scored 23 goals and was part of the best offensive in Spanish professional football.

But successes could also be achieved outside the field. The triumphant advance of the Galácticos in marketing began with the signing of David Beckham at the latest . Especially in Asia a lot of sympathies and supporters have been won and so since 2005/06 it has been the highest income football club in the world . Of course, this income also partially financed the Galácticos project in the following years . After the championship title in 2003 , however, there was a kink in the seemingly never-ending success curve. In the next three years, both nationally and internationally, there was nothing and, to make matters worse, the successes had to be left to the big rival from Catalonia .

The failure of the Galácticos

There are several different opinions and reasons for the short-term success of the "World Selection":

Problem with defensive transfers

Florentino Pérez wasn't a big fan of defensive football. He wanted to celebrate beautiful and spectacular football with strong and goal-scoring attackers. In his opinion, this is not possible with defensive players. This meant that Pérez was not willing to pay high transfer fees for defenders . In 2004, a possible transfer of Patrick Vieiras from Arsenal FC failed for these reasons . Shortly after David Beckham's commitment, “midfielder” Claude Makélélé left the club. Makélélé had asked the club for a contract with improved conditions, but he was denied for the reasons mentioned above.

President Florentino Pérez then described Makélélé as replaceable and criticized his style of play.

“We will not miss Makélélé. His technical skills are average, he lacks the speed and technique to compete in one-on-one and 90% of his actions are backwards or to the side. He was not a good header player and his passes were rarely more than ten feet. Younger players will come and make Makélélé forget. "

- Florentino Pérez, 2003

But only a few shared this opinion. Makélélé's compatriot Zinédine Zidane criticized the transfer as did former Real captain Fernando Hierro :

"(...) The loss of Makélélé was the beginning of the end for Los Galácticos (...)."

- Fernando Hierro, 2005

Hierro should be right in making this statement. After Makélélé's move, Real Madrid could no longer adequately occupy the " sixth position " and thus lost an important pillar in the team.

The few defensive players that Pérez 'hired during his tenure (including Walter Samuel , Thomas Gravesen , Carlos Diogo , Pablo García and Cicinho ) could all, never assert themselves in Madrid, let alone justify the often inflationary advance praise. Central defender Francisco Pavón , namesake for Zidanes y Pavones , could not prevail at Real Madrid and left the club in 2007 for Zaragoza .

The dismissal of coach Vicente del Bosque

With the completely hasty dismissal of Vicente del Bosque after winning the 29th championship , because his football was not spectacular enough, a coach and board odyssey began at Real Madrid, which ended at the earliest with the renewed commitment of Fabio Capello . By 2007, five coaches and four sports directors tried their hand at the capital club. The reason for the dismissal were probably differences between Pérez, del Bosque and their players Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes , Steve McManaman and Claude Makélélé. Morientes, Hierro and McManaman had campaigned vehemently for the contract improvement of teammate Makélélé to prevent a possible change of the French . Shortly after del Bosque's dismissal, all four players left the club.

However, del Bosque was even more important as the head of the Galácticos . Like no other coach, he knew how to shape the world stars into a functioning, balanced team in which everyone worked for everyone. In this way, the individual players, in combination with younger talents and experienced players, became a playful and technically almost perfect team. How important del Bosque was for the club is shown by the titles he won with Madrid between 1999 and 2003.

Personal awards as a trainer
Conflicts of interest between coaches, players and the president

A week after David Beckham's arrival , a new manager was introduced in Carlos Queiroz , previously an assistant manager at Manchester United . Queiroz was allegedly encouraged by Pérez to allow star players to play permanently regardless of any form fluctuations or poor performance and not to press them into a tactical system. Long-time players and figureheads of the club, such as Raúl in the 2004/05 season , also benefited from it. Michael Owen scored four more goals this season than El siete (Raúl's nickname) despite his few minutes played (1718 minutes in 32 games this season ) and was clearly in better form throughout the season. Nevertheless, he usually had to put up with a place on the bench and preferably acted as a noble joker . The result of this team policy was a disappointing fourth place in the table after the 2003/2004 season , the defeat in the cup final against Real Saragossa and the dismissal of Queiroz.

Transfers for marketing reasons

With Luís Figo they had one of the world's best players in the right midfield since 2000 . Regardless of this, you signed another right winger three years later with David Beckham; less because of its usefulness for the team, but more because of its great fame and popularity , especially in Asia. In the following years, either Figo had to move to the left wing or Beckham had to take on the role of central defensive midfielder .

Beckham was also considered the exact opposite of Ronaldinho , who moved to league rivals FC Barcelona that same summer. It was hoped that Beckham's higher profile and his lifestyle, which was often thematized in the tabloid media , would gain further sympathy. In order to take full advantage of the "Beckham hype", they went on a US tour before the 2003/2004 season and on a 19-day trip across Asia, which brought in an estimated ten million euros. The worldwide interest was so great that some compared the Asia tour to the Beatles' first visit to the USA . In the next few years, Ronaldinho, nationally and internationally, would do far more successfully with FC Barcelona than Beckham and "his" Galácticos .

Bad transfer decisions

In addition to the transfer problems around Makélélé and Vieira, there was another bad decision in 2004 with serious consequences. Samuel Eto'o has been in Real Madrid's professional squad since 1998 . Because he was rarely used there, however, he was supposed to gain match practice through lending deals with smaller clubs. In 1999 he played for RCD Espanyol Barcelona and in the 1999/2000 season on the Balearic Island for RCD Mallorca . There he was able to convince with six goals in 13 games and so Mallorca bought 50% of Eto'o's transfer rights after the season. However, Real Madrid had a right of first refusal in the event Eto'o should leave Mallorca. Florentino Pérez sold the other half of the transfer rights to Mallorca in 2004, on the grounds that Madrid already had the best strikers in the Primera División in Raúl González and Ronaldo and that there was no place in the squad for a non-EU player, who was likely to top it all off will also be absent every two years due to the Africa Cup of Nations at the beginning of the year. Instead, the Spanish record champions signed Michael Owen, who left Madrid after one season. RCD Mallorca finally sold Eto'o for 27 million euros to FC Barcelona, ​​which he helped to three league titles and two Champions League triumphs. In 2006 Eto'o was the top scorer in the Spanish league with 26 goals .

The end of the first Galáctico era

After three untitled years and two elimination in the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League, Pérez resigned as President of Real Madrid on February 27, 2006 after a 0-0 win against Arsenal . During his presidency, he significantly reduced the mountain of debt from initially just under half a billion euros and made Real Madrid one of the most economically sound clubs in the world. The income from admission tickets rose from approx. 40 million to an estimated 90 million euros, the income from sponsorship contracts was sixfold and the marketing income in 2006 was 140 million euros (previously approx. 40 million euros).

“Today our income is much higher than our expenses. A sign that my model has paid off. We have regained the property of the club that we had to sell and are continuing to expand the Real Madrid brand with a completely renovated stadium and a completely new Ciudad Deportiva. First of all, we had to pay off our debts. That was no longer a problem after the sale of Ciudad Deportiva. Of course, I let my contacts play in order to achieve the best possible for Real. But that only fixed one problem. Real had to become what it used to be. Real had to become an independent club that was not dependent on millions of others. Therefore, the entire structures of the club have been renewed, especially in terms of marketing, a lot has been restructured, which is why Real is now more valuable than any other club in the world. Another point was transfers. Of course, new players had to be found, but they should not only help athletically, but also make economic sense. Players like Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and especially Beckham have helped the club tremendously from a purely economic point of view. Not only their transfer fee and their total salary + bonuses were offset by jersey sales, Real's share of their sponsorship money and other marketing measures, no, even more money was earned. With this completely new club policy and the new infrastructure, we have made Real, also from an economic point of view, the “Non-Plus-Ultra” of football. "

- Florentino Pérez, on his first term as President (2000-2006)

The last season of the Galácticos ended in 2007 with the 30th championship title and the farewell to David Beckham. Coach Fabio Capello was constantly clashing with Beckham during the season, among other things due to his poor performance and lack of discipline, and in the meantime banished him to the stands. Before the end of the season, Beckham's move to the USA was certain and he was the last of the “Big Four” to leave Madrid. Luís Figo had moved to Serie A in Italy , to Inter Milan two years earlier , Zidane retired after the 2006 World Cup and Ronaldo moved to AC Milan during the 2007 winter break .

The second Galáctico era

The 2008/09 season turned into a nightmare for Los Merengues after the last two championships in a row . The rivals from Barcelona were able to win the triple and were superior Spanish champions with nine points ahead of Madrid. Things didn't go well in the Champions League either and they were eliminated in the round of 16 for the fifth time in a row. After a 1-0 defeat at home to Liverpool FC , they had to admit defeat 4-0 at Anfield . To make matters worse, both Clásicos were lost and in the cup they were eliminated in the first round from third division Real Unión de Irún . After increasingly poor performances and now twelve points behind leaders Barcelona, ​​coach Bernd Schuster was dismissed in the middle of the season . Juande Ramos , previously coach at Tottenham Hotspur , was introduced as the new coach and scored 49 out of a possible 51 points from 17 games. After the clear 2: 6 defeat in Clásico in front of a home crowd, four more defeats followed.

In January 2009, President Ramón Calderón resigned due to wrong decisions on the transfer market and allegations of bribery related to his election as president. After Vicente Boluda had temporarily taken over the presidency, new elections were scheduled for mid-June. After a three-year hiatus, Florentino Pérez wanted to lead the best club of the 20th century back to the top of Europe and so he presented his future plans for the club with great media interest. As with his second candidacy in 2000, he promised the fans to present new world stars at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu and to bring the club even further economically. After a short time, Pérez emerged as the top favorite for the presidency and gradually all other candidates withdrew their candidacy. On June 1, 2009, the Madrid construction company's second term began.

Galácticos 2.0

Pérez's first official act was a wait of 24 hours. One day after taking office, he presented Manuel Pellegrini as the coach and head of the new Galácticos .

In the following months of the summer transfer period, Pérez initiated a complete overhaul of the squad. 13 players left the capital club, ten new ones were introduced again. Thus began the second era of the Galácticos :

season player old club Transfer 1 comment farewell new club
2009/10 BrazilBrazil Kaká AC Milan 65 million World footballer 2007 2013 AC Milan
2009/10 PortugalPortugal Cristiano Ronaldo Manchester United 94 million World footballer 2008, most expensive transfer in football history 2018 Juventus Turin
2009/10 FranceFrance Karim Benzema Olympique Lyon 35 million
2009/10 SpainSpain Xabi Alonso Liverpool FC 35.4 million European Champion 2008 2014 FC Bayern Munich
2012/13 CroatiaCroatia Luka Modrić Tottenham Hotspur 30 million
2013/14 WalesFlag of Wales (1959 – present) .svg Gareth Bale Tottenham Hotspur 101 million (Unofficially) the most expensive transfer in football history
2014/15 GermanyGermany Toni Kroos FC Bayern Munich 25 million World Champion 2014
2014/15 ColombiaColombia James Rodríguez AS Monaco 80 million Top scorer of the 2014 World Cup 2017–2019 (loan) FC Bayern Munich
2019/20 BelgiumBelgium Eden Hazard Chelsea FC 100 million Captain of the Belgian national team

1 in euros

As with the first Galácticos , the new stars were supplemented by homegrown players, further commitments or already established players:

Other players, including the Spanish European champions Raúl Albiol (15 million from Valencia CF) and Álvaro Arbeloa (4 million from Liverpool FC) completed Pérez '“shopping tour”. With the transfer of Cristiano Ronaldo , Pérez set a new transfer record for the third time after Figo and Zidane.

Despite the many new purchases, the 2009/10 season also ended without a title. As in the previous year, they failed early in the cup and embarrassed themselves by a 4-0 defeat against third division AD Alcorcón . In the Champions League, the "round of 16 curse" (for the sixth time in a row Real Madrid did not get past the last 16) could not be broken and Benzema's ex-club Olympique Lyon had to be defeated. In the league, however, things went better: At the end of the season, a new club record was set with 102 goals and 96 points. But two defeats in the Clásicos ultimately cost the championship title. As expected, Manuel Pellegrini had to leave the club after a year.

With the presentation of José Mourinho as the new coach and the departures of the Real legends Raúl and Guti , the 2010/11 season began with a bang. The Special One did not want any new "marketing transfers", but wanted to strengthen the team specifically with younger, meaningful newcomers. This led to the transfers of Ángel Di María (25 million, SL Benfica ), Mesut Özil (18 million, Werder Bremen ) and Sami Khedira (12 million, VfB Stuttgart ). Then the "curse of the last 16" in the Champions League was defeated. The club also won the Copa del Rey for the first time in 18 years at the end of the season . In the 2011/12 season , Mourinho led Real Madrid to the 32nd Spanish championship with a new national record for points and goals. From the second era of the Galácticos , Xabi Alonso in particular as midfield strategist, Karim Benzema as preparer and executor and Cristiano Ronaldo , who broke numerous club and league records with his large number of goals, proved to be the most important pillars of success.

The new generation of Galácticos were now aiming for La decima , Real Madrid's tenth Champions League title. Initially, however, the Galácticos under José Mourinho were eliminated three times in the semifinals of the competition, two of them very narrowly (2012 against Bayern Munich on penalties and 2013 against Borussia Dortmund with a total of 3: 4), before they under Mourinho's successor Carlo Ancelotti after victories against these two Clubs and in the final against Atlético Madrid finally won the tenth title.

In 2016 , 2017 and 2018 Real Madrid won the Champions League three times in a row under Zinédine Zidane . The squad was therefore only slightly changed. It was not until the 2019/20 season that one of the most expensive transfers in football history was made with Eden Hazard from Chelsea .

Successes of the Galácticos

Individual awards

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ El Mundo (November 8, 2004, Spanish) ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / elmundodeporte.elmundo.es
  2. ↑ Voted Coach of the Year at the International Federation of Football History & Statistics
  3. ↑ "Asientour 2003"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Rheinische Post , August 11, 2003.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.rp-online.de  
  4. ↑ "From debt club to club with the highest turnover in the world" ( Memento of the original from February 24, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / realmadrid.de
  5. ^ "Best Club 20th Century" ( Memento from April 23, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) (PDF file; 8 kB), FIFA
  6. ↑ Zidane's renovation continues: Real also sign Eden Hazard , kicker.de, June 7, 2019, accessed on April 24, 2020.