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.

Zinedine Zidane goal (Real Madrid v Sevilla)

2002-2003

European Football – Kaka Signs with Real Madrid

After days of speculation, it was revealed yesterday that Kaka signed a £59 million deal with the Real Madrid, leaving AC Milan, the club that gave him plenty of support. Kaka is leaving the club stating that he is trying to help them on their financial difficulties since his transfer has beaten the record of £46.7 million that Real Madrid paid back in 2001 for Zinedine Zidane. The transfer was confirmed late on Monday after the doctors from Real flew to the camp where Brazil’s national team is training for the World Cup qualifier against Paraguay, to run a physical and medical test to the Brazilian player confirming that the player was on good shape and proceeded to consolidate the transfer. Kaka rejected a £100 million transfer to the Premier League club Chelsea at the beginning of the year; in that occasion he said that he rejected the deal because he wanted to stay with the AC Milan and he didn’t want to leave them in the middle of the season. In addition he was emotionally compromised with the team and fans that were begging him to stay. Kaka added that this deal between him and Real Madrid is completely different from the one he could had with Chelsea in that moment. He said that he is doing everything to help the club from the financial crisis they are having in this moment and that even though he didn’t want to leave from the AC Milan, he is doing it for a good cause and also that the team that Real is trying to build and the football project that they have in mind right now will be good for him to maintain his career in the best level. “I can officially say I’m a Real Madrid player. My professional link with AC Milan finishes now, but my sentimental link will never end. Real Madrid intends to build a great team, with historic players such as Raul and Casillas. We will make history again, both in Spain and Europe. I guess the sport project is very good.” The AC Milan directives and players have already thanked Kaka for all of the six years that he had spent with the club, and for all the good things that he gave to the club, victories included. They also wished the best for him in this new journey and thanked him also for the professionalism and commitment that he always had with the club. The new president for the Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, has stated that he wants to build a solid and great team as the one Real had back in 2000 when players like Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo and David Beckham where part of them. The speculation says that Perez is managing names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Xabi Alonso, David Villa and Franck Ribery to complete the new era of the club. Kaka joined Milan back in 2003 and played a very significant role for the team in various tournaments. The club actually launch Kaka’s career in European football, and he is very grateful for that. The contract that he signed with the Real Madrid is for 5 years and will end up in 2014.

Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid Framed 8×10 Photograph Goal Celebration

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Zinedine Zidane Real Madrid Framed 8×10 Photograph Goal Celebration

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