Galáctico
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galáctico (or superstar) is a term used to describe a world-famous football player who has been signed by Spanish club Real Madrid. It is mostly associated with the tenure of Florentino Pérez's presidency, where he purchased at least one galáctico in the summer of every year. The Galácticos nickname, originally used by the media as means of emphasising the greatness of the team, became instead a term used to mock it, and has fallen into disuse.
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[edit] Los Galácticos
They included:
- Luís Figo (£38.7m from FC Barcelona) - joined in 2000
- Zinedine Zidane (£44m from Juventus) - joined in 2001
- Ronaldo (£26m from Inter Milan) - joined in 2002
- David Beckham (£25m from Manchester United) - joined in 2003
[edit] Pérez becomes President
Though Real Madrid had already won two European Cups (1998, 2000) under the presidency of Lorenzo Sanz, Sanz lost his re-election bid to Florentino Pérez. Pérez had won, partly by promising to sign Luís Figo from rivals F.C. Barcelona.
Pérez made a habit of buying at least one galáctico each summer during the transfer season. The "Galáctico" policy was initially called Zidanes y Pavones, due to the squad being a mix of renowned superstars, such as Zidane, and locally born players raised through the academy, ie. Francisco Pavon. The signing of Figo set a record transfer fee. It was broken a year later by the purchase of Zidane from Juventus F.C. and that record still stands as of 2007.
[edit] Success
It initially helped to cement Real's status as one of the world's most prestigious clubs. It worked to great effect as Real won the La Liga twice and its record ninth European Cup.
[edit] 2003-present
However, the policy only met with limited success on the pitch from 2003-2004 season onwards, as Real Madrid failed to win a major trophy. This is possibly because many of the previous clubs 'Galacticos' had played for had built their squads around the player, and had a more proper team balance of attack and defense. All of the 'galaticos' were attacking players, with generally limited defensive roles and abilities.
In particular, a lack of interest in defensive talent harmed the team, as potential transfers were overlooked because Pérez did not want to pay large wages to defensive players. Claude Makélélé departed the team in 2003 when the club refused to raise his relatively low salary - despite being widely considered as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and a key to the team. Negotiations to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal F.C. in 2004 failed because for similar reasons.
[edit] Del Bosque's sacking
Another turning point was the surprise firing of coach Vicente Del Bosque, shortly after Real's 29th league championship in the 2002-2003 season. It was widely believed that there was a political split, with Del Bosque and his players (Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman and Claude Makélélé) on one side, and Perez on the other. Three of the aforementioned players had backed a significant wage raise for Makélélé and all of them left the club in 2003 in Perez's shakeup bid to regain control.
More importantly, Del Bosque was able to balance the many different modern player egos in the star studded team, considering that several Galacticos were competing for the same position and had their playing time reduced. Consequently, without such a talented coach, the superstar players placed together failed to form a cohesive footballing unit - having a large number of very talented, renowned individual footballers did not effectively translate into a great footballing team.
The signing of David Beckham in 2003 essentially forced Steve McManaman out, as both were competing for the winger position. As their position on the starting lineup was uncertain, this led to the departure of Luís Figo and Michael Owen after the 2004-2005 season; Owen had played less than a full season with Real Madrid before leaving. Real Madrid has since suffered from high turnover in non-playing staff, with four managers and four directors of football in the four years following Del Bosque's sacking.
[edit] Policy
The 'galacticos' policy meant that players were picked not according to form, but rather because of their marketing potential off the pitch. This ultimately led to what Steve McManaman later described in his autobiography as the "Disneyfication of Real Madrid".
Several signings and player management decisions were controversial. Though Real Madrid owned the contract of Samuel Eto'o since 1998 and had first preference over his signing, Florentino Pérez released Eto'o in 2004, arguing that Madrid already had the best two strikers in the league (Ronaldo and Raúl) and that there was no place for another non-European Union player. Also, it was reported that Madrid had signed Antonio Cassano so they could cash in to his reputation in his native Italy, though he was unable to gain a regular place on the first team.
In May 2006, Real Madrid fined Cassano and Ronaldo for every gram they remained overweight, while Raúl has been under heavy criticism because of his poor performances in the last two years, seeing him relegated at times to the bench. Eto'o would help F.C. Barcelona to the 2004-05 and 2005-06 La Liga titles and the 2005-06 UEFA Champions League.
Jonathan Woodgate was signed for £13.4 million in August 2004 but he did not make his first appearance for the Madrid until September 2005 due to injuries. Only in February 2006 did he emerge as one of the squad's best defenders but it was cut short due to back surgery.
[edit] End of era
Nonetheless, Los Galácticos policy resulted in increased financial success based on the exploitation of the club's high marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia. Its economic model led it to finally overtake perennial leader Manchester United as the world's richest club by revenue in 2005-2006.
However, the decline in the team's on-field performance had seemingly hit a nadir in the 2005-2006 season, exiting in the UEFA Champions League to Arsenal F.C. in the round of 16 without scoring a goal in either leg. Arsenal's management is often considered the opposite of Los Galácticos, with Arsène Wenger preferring to sign young unknowns to develop into world-class players, several of which had later been sold to Real Madrid for large sums. Florentino Pérez resigned on February 27, 2006, leaving to inevitable speculation of the end of the galáctico era at Real Madrid.
