Galácticos (or galactics) is a Spanish term used to describe expensive, world-famous Real Madrid football players. This term came into use to describe the policy pursued in the first tenure of Florentino Pérez's presidency at Real Madrid, where he purchased at least one galáctico in the summer of every year. The plural galácticos has been used to describe both the transfer policy, the Madrid side during Pérez's presidency, and the players bought under it.
The term itself carries both positive and negative meanings. Initially, the term was used to emphasise the greatness of signing superstar players and the construction of a world class team. Later the term attracted a more negative connotation; galáctico becoming synonymous with prima donna and used as a term to deride the transfer policy and side (or team) built under it, following media perception that the policy at Real had failed to deliver expected levels of success.
In the culture of Real Madrid, the Galacticos period is often contrasted with the Quinta del Buitre era of the late 1980's. The Quinta del Buitre played a more physical and less appealing style of football and were made up of homegrown players, unlike the foreign stars who became the Galacticos.
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The first galactico era is considered to be synonymous with the presidency of Florentino Perez between 2000–2007, or from Real Madrid's signing of Luís Figo during summer 2000 to the departure of David Beckham during summer 2007.
However, the origins of the Galactico policy date as far back as the 1950s when the architect of the policy, President Santiago Bernabeu Yeste after whom the club stadium is named, signed star players the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, Gunter Netzer, Raymond Kopa, Jose Santamaria, Carlos Santillana and Francisco Gento in succession, to achieve Real Madrid's finest era of dominance. The Florentino Perez era brought:
The principal galácticos were:
In addition, Michael Owen (£8 million plus Antonio Núñez from Liverpool - joined in 2004) is considered by some to be galácticos. However, most consider their transfer not as impactful, in terms of money or his initial importance to the team (he featured mostly as a substitute).
Several other players were often considered to be a part of the galácticos legacy due to their influence on the team during that period despite either being signed previously to the reign of Pérez or being graduates of the Madrid youth system, these often included:
Robinho was also signed during Pérez's first term as president but is not generally regarded as galácticos due to the fact that he wasn't considered established world-class player when he first arrived in Madrid, but rather promising youngster with huge potential.
Though Real Madrid had already won two European Cups (1998, 2000) under the presidency of Lorenzo Sanz; Sanz lost his re-election bid to Pérez. Pérez had won, partly by promising expensive new signings and an aggressive new transfer policy, in particular to sign Luís Figo from rivals FC Barcelona.
Pérez sold Real's then training ground Ciudad Deportiva for €480 million; this allowed Real to clear their debts, build a replacement training complex (at a fraction of the cost) and have significant funds for investment in the playing side. The deal was later investigated by the EU on competition grounds on the prompting of several unnamed clubs - no charges were brought.
After the purchase of Figo, for a world record transfer fee, Pérez sought to buy at least one world-class superstar player (a galáctico) each summer during the transfer season. It was broken a year later by the purchase of Zidane from Juventus. The galáctico policy was initially called Zidanes y Pavones. The name came from Zidane and Francisco Pavón, a youth product from Real Madrid — the idea was to sign one major superstar per year and promoted youth players from within.
Immediate success followed, with Real winning La Liga in 2000–01 and 2002–03 and claiming the UEFA Champions League in 2001–02, with Zidane scoring the winning goal in the final. After winning the 2002–03 La Liga title, Real Madrid added another galáctico - David Beckham from Manchester United.
The 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 2005–06. Real Madrid became the biggest club in the world due to the fame of its galácticos and the resources they generated.
Real were expected to continue their level of dominance in the domestic and European game after 2002, with the signing of Beckham expected to strengthen the team. However, following seasons would see limited success on the pitch, with Real failing to win any trophy for next three seasons after their 2003 league title. In the same period, rivals FC Barcelona won the 2006 UEFA Champions League and successive La Liga titles, with Real failing to progress in European football or attain domestic success.
Several reasons have been proposed in the media for the failure of the galáctico policy:
The decline in the team's on-field performance had seemingly hit a nadir in the 2005–06 season, exiting in the UEFA Champions League to Arsenal in the Round of 16 without scoring a goal in either leg. Pérez resigned on 27 February 2006 after Real Madrid lost to Mallorca.
The final season of the galáctico era is considered to be the 2006–07 season under Fabio Capello, with Capello dropping several of the (previously perrenially selected) galácticos — notably David Beckham — for periods of the season (It should be noted that Beckham was returned to the team during the second half of the season and considered by many to be one of their better performers at the time). The final end of the first galáctico era is considered the departure of Beckham to join Major League Soccer side the Los Angeles Galaxy after the 2006–07 season (a move agreed before his return to the first team). He was the last of the big four to move on, with Figo having joined Internazionale two seasons prior, Zidane retiring after the 2006 FIFA World Cup, and Ronaldo moving to Milan half a season before Beckham's departure.
The 2008–09 season saw Real eclipsed by rivals FC Barcelona, who completed The Treble including beating Real to win La Liga by a wide margin of nine points. Real were humbled in the Champions League 1st knockout round by English giants Liverpool, suffering a 1–0 loss at the Bernabéu and a heavy 4–0 at Anfield. The defeat marked the fifth successive season of early Champions League exits, with Real not making the quarter-finals since 2004. To make things worse, they lost both their El Clásico games, and crashed out of the Copa del Rey to third-level Real Unión. The team was widely derided in the press. Manager Bernd Schuster was sacked midway through the 2008–09 season, with the team perceptibly in decline, despite the efforts of Juande Ramos, who kept the team with 19 successive victories, shortening the deficit to only six points (initially, Barcelona led by 12). It was all brought to an end when a rampant Barcelona later defeated an exposed Real Madrid 2-6 with Lionel Messi, Xavi and Thierry Henry being the stars.
In addition, Real president Ramón Calderón resigned in January 2009 after corruption allegations, and having failed to secure notable transfer targets for the club.
The resignation of Calderón resulted in a presidential election in mid-2009, returning Florentino Pérez to the presidency. Pérez again pledged to go on a spending spree to return the club to European and domestic competitiveness, notably with his vocal claims of an attempt to sign AC Milan's Kaká. Just 24 hours after his appointment, Manuel Pellegrini was unveiled as Juande Ramos' replacement as manager. After much speculation linking him to the club, Kaká was duly signed for a then world record fee of £57 million on 9 June 2009. On 11 June, Manchester United revealed they had accepted a shock offer of £80 million (a new world transfer record fee) for Cristiano Ronaldo. United gave Real until 30 June to complete the deal. On 26 June, Real Madrid and Manchester United signed the final agreement for the transfer of Ronaldo, which became effective on 1 July. That same day, it was confirmed that Olympique Lyonnais had accepted an offer from Madrid for Karim Benzema.
On 29 July 2009, it was announced that Real and Liverpool had reached an agreement for the transfer of Álvaro Arbeloa to the Spanish club. A fee of €4 million, the same amount Liverpool paid for the player in January 2007, had been agreed between the clubs and the player would sign a five-year contract with Real. On 4 August, Real Madrid and Liverpool again agreed terms for the transfer of Xabi Alonso to the Santiago Bernabéu. A fee of €34 million was to be paid by Real for Alonso. Other players that came to Real Madrid were Raul Albiol, Ezequiel Garay, Esteban Granero. Also Antonio Adan became third goalkeeper through the youth system.
In their first year the second era of galácticos failed to win any trophy. They were crushed 4-0 against Alcorcón on the Copa del Rey, then they were knocked out of the Champions League in the Round of 16 for the sixth consecutive year. They were also unable to win La Liga despite making a club record 96 points. Once again, Real Madrid suffered from poor transfer decisions as Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben, who were transferred to Internazionale and Bayern Munich respectively because they were considered surplus to requirements, reached the UEFA Champions League Final at the Santiago Bernabéu. Each of them played an important role for their clubs to reach the finals. Manuel Pellegrini was sacked and José Mourinho appointed for the second season. Real Madrid continued the spending spree by signing players Ángel di María, Sami Khedira, Sergio Canales, Pedro León, Ricardo Carvalho and Mesut Özil.
On 20 April 2011, the second galácticos era managed to obtain their first trophy in a 1-0 victory over Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive goal in extra time. They also managed to get past the Round of 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the first time in seven years, reaching the semi-finals, where they lost to eventual champions Barcelona. In La Liga they were also second best to Barcelona, being defeated 0-5 in the 13th round, and drawing 1-1 in the 32nd round, thus achieving their first point in the last six matches against the Azulgranas.
May 2011 saw the appointment of former galáctico Zinedine Zidane as General Manager of the club, replacing Jorge Valdano.
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