Enrique Cerezo
Enrique Cerezo Torres [enˈrike θeˈɾeθo] is a cinematographic producer and the president of Atlético Madrid from 2002.
Cinematographic career
Enrique Cerezo began in cinema in 1971 as a camera assistant in the movie Vente a Alemania, Pepe. Three years later he directs his only film La sonrisa del sol: Almería.
As cinema producer, he is the owner of Enrique Cerezo - Cinematographic Productions and has produced many films. The most famous films produced by Enrique Cerezo are El perro del hortelano, La buena estrella, Pídele cuentas al rey, Yoyes, Juana la Loca, La hora de los valientes and La vida de nadie.
Presidency of Atlético Madrid
After the ascent of the club to the Primera Liga in 2002, Jesús Gil decided to leave the presidency of the organization, although his family continued to control it and decided to designate Enrique Cerezo as President, appreciating his collaboration with the club for many years.
In his first season, the club made several transfers of certain reputable players such as Javi Moreno, Demetrio Albertini and Fabricio Coloccini coming from AC Milan, but despite this, the club finished the season in twelfth position.
In the 2003-04 season, the club sacked coach Luis Aragonés and replaced him with Gregorio Manzano. Great part of the deals of the previous season leave the club, and in this year, players like Diego Simeone, Ariel Ibagaza and Lequi arrived. The club finished in seventh position, making it a poor season.
In the 2004-2005 season, the club replaced their coach again, hiring César Ferrando and he aimed to renovate Los Rojiblancos. At that time, the club purchased central defenders Pablo Ibáñez and Luis Perea. Ferrando's plans did not materialize and the club finished eleventh, again outside of European football.
In the 2005-2006 season, veteran Carlos Bianchi was appointed by the club. Atlético made great investments by bringing stars like Martin Petrov, Maxi Rodríguez and Mateja Kezman. Nevertheless the team did not produce good results and the Bianchi was dismissed midway through the season, Pepe Murcia replaced him
In the 2009-2010 season, and with the arrival of Quique Flores Atlético saw a huge change of fortunes. Though they continued to lag somewhat in La Liga, finishing in ninth position, they managed to get third place in the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League group stage, and subsequently entered the season's Europa League in the round of 32 and won the Europa League, beating English teams Liverpool in the semi-finals and eventually Fulham in the final held in the HSH Nordbank Arena in Hamburg on 12 May 2010. Diego Forlán scored twice, the second being an extra-time winner in the 116th minute, as Atlético Madrid won 2–1.
In the 2010-2011 season, Atlético had a comparatively disappointing performance, finishing only seventh in the League and being eliminated in the quarter-finals of the Copa del Rey and the Group Stage of the Europa League. This ultimately led to the departure of manager Quique Flores before the conclusion of the season, who was replaced with ex-Sevilla manager Gregorio Manzano, and who secured the final Europa League place for Atlético. Manzano himself was replaced with Diego Simeone in December 2011 after a poor run of form in La Liga.
In the 2011-2012 season, former player Diego Simeone led Atlétio as a coach this time to win their second Europa League in the three years since its creation, as they beat Athletic Bilbao 3–0 in the final on 9 May 2012 in Bucharest with Radamel Falcao — scoring two — and Diego Ribas da Cunha the scorers.Again, by winning the Europa League, they qualified for the 2012 UEFA Super Cup against Chelsea, winner of the previous season's Champions League, which was played in Monaco on 31 August 2012. Atlético won 4–1, including a hat-trick by Falcao in the first half. On 16 May 2013, Atlético beat Real Madrid 2–1 in the Copa del Rey Final, in a tense match where both teams finished with 10 men. This ended a 14-year and 25-match winless streak in the Madrid derby.
The 2012–13 season saw the club finish with 3 trophies in a little over a year. As the undefeated winners of their Champions League group against FC Zenit, FC Porto and Austria Wien, and later defeating AC Milan, FC Barcelona and Chelsea in the knock-out rounds, Atlético played their first Champions League final since 1974, in Lisbon's Estádio da Luz against city rivals Real Madrid. Atlético took a first-half lead through Diego Godín and survived Real's pressure until the third minute of injury time, when Sergio Ramos scored an equaliser from a corner. The match went into extra time and ended in a 4–1 loss. However, Atlético did have the consolation of winning La Liga for the first time since 1996, with Godín's headed equaliser against Barcelona on the last day of the season, a week before the Champions League final.