Galacticos at Real Madrid ready to take on Barcelona

The return of Florentino Perez as chairman of Real Madrid sees the policy of signing big-name stars – or galacticos – back at the Bernabeu as Los Blancos look to challenge Barcelona in the La Liga and on the European stage.

Last season was Barcelona’s most successful in a long time a Josep Guardiola – in his first year as manager – led the Catalan spearheaded by Lionel Messi to success in La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish domestic cup – the first time a Spanish club has won those three trophies in one year.

Perez has signaled his intent to challenge Barcelona early on by breaking the world record transfer fee twice. First, the Brazilian Kaka was signed from AC Milan for £56million before Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was bought for £80m. This mirrors Real Madrid’s transfer activity when Perez first took over the club in 2000, when he signed Luis Figo for a then record fee of £37m before breaking that record the following year when he purchased Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for £46m.

As well as Kaka and Ronaldo, Real Madrid has confirmed the signing of Raul Albiol, the Valencia centre back. In his previous tenure, Perez was criticised for his buying policy as he tended to focus on attacking players too heavily and, indeed, the sale of defensive midfielder Claude Makelele to Chelsea is seen by many to be the downfall of Real Madrid after a promising start to Perez’s presidency.

The 2008-09 season saw Barcelona lauded for playing attractive, attacking football and as well as winning a historic treble, the club beat fierce rivals Real Madrid 2-6 in the El Clasico derby – this is the most goals scored by Barca in this fixture and the biggest win since the 1970s when Johan Cruyff led Barcelona to a 0-5 win.

Before the start of the season, a motion of no confident was raised club president Joan Laporta who narrowly survived the attempt to oust him. Spurred into action, he made major changes to the playing staff and brought in former player Guardiola to take charge of them.

This brought great success to the club and many eyes are looking to the Catalan club to see what their next move is. By the end of June, they had yet to make any additions to their squad although journalists had written about many players taking Barcelona flights to join the Spanish and European champions as they look to fend off a new challenge from Real Madrid.

The Galacticos Era is Back

It’s been a while since the Spanish soccer club Real Madrid was regarded as the team of the Galacticos. The term Los Galacticos was coined in the early 2000’s due to the fact that club president Florentino Perez went on a spending spree, promising to bring in the greatest soccer players all over the world. This included Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, and David Beckham. At first the acquisitions were used as a combination of a marketing ploy and significantly increasing the club’s talent. The world renowned players such as Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham generated millions, if not billions in marketing and merchandising sales for the club. Also, the fusion of these remarkable talents made the team win in several soccer competitions including two league titles and one UEFA Champions League Title.

Years later, however, the team ceased to perform at the expected high level due to too much egos and saturation of talent. Players relied heavily on individual talent rather than team synergy, which led to club’s slow and painful demise. Eventually Florentino Perez was out as president, and the team never went back to what it was during the Galacticos Era. Or so we thought. Fast-forward to the summer of 2009—Florentino Perez has been re-elected as Real Madrid’s president and the man wasted no time as he immediately pledged a second coming, a new breed of Los Galacticos.

Kaka

Without a shadow of a doubt, Kaka is one of the smartest, fastest and most reliable soccer players in the world. He plays as a forward or a midfielder for AC Milan and the Brazil national team. Regarded as a living legend by many, Kaka singlehandedly brought his team AC Milan to win the much coveted UEFA Champion’s League title in 2007. Also in the same year, Kaka was the recipient of the FIFA World Player of The Year Award, the most prestigious award any soccer player can get in his lifetime. A consistent goal scorer and brilliant play-maker, Kaka has been the target of all elite European Football clubs for many years now.

Cristiano Ronaldo

Playing as a winger for Manchester United and the Portugal national team, the man is arguably the best player in the world today. At a tender age of 24, Cristiano Ronaldo has achieved a lot in his soccer career. He helped his club win several trophies including two English Premier League Titles and one UEFA Champions League title. Since 2006, Cristiano Ronaldo has been included in the top three candidates for the FIFA World Player of the Year Award, and he finally came home with the prestigious honor on 2009.

Why they matter

Re-elected president Perez recently made a very bold claim that he would take Kaka from AC Milan and sign him to Real Madrid for a six-year contract. Many did not believe him, saying that Kaka would never leave the Italian club. On June 8, 2009, however, Perez delivered on that promise. Real Madrid reportedly paid $92 million for the Brazilian phenomenon. Three days later, Manchester United accepted a whopping $131 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo. This means that by the end of the summer and as the 2009-2010 season kicks in, the two most celebrated soccer players in the world will wear the same jersey and play beautiful soccer together. Soon we will all be witnesses to the new Los Galacticos; the greatest team to ever play in the pitch. GP