Real Madrid is arguably the biggest team in the world and almost definitely the most prestigious. While many assign the success of the club to various factors such as geography, good management, or even controversially the intervention of General Franco, it’s undebatable that they are have been ridiculously successful and have been host to some of the best players to ever grace the game. The success the club experienced in the 50s and 60s only created a hunger for more as Real Madrid brought through the Galactico era with hopes of entering a new era of domination.
Los Galacticos
The Galacticos, or galactico for singular, was the name given to the players that Real Madrid signed during the first term of presidency of Florentino Perez between 2000 and 2006. In fact, the term may have been new but the concept and policy itself weren’t. Starting in 1943, under the presidency of Santiago Bernabeu, Real Madrid had embarked on a mission to become the biggest club in world football. As part of this mission, Bernabeu reorganized the club structure so that every level and section of the club would have its own operating staff and function like its own department. This would become the norm for how all professional clubs would operate in the future. Bernabeu also spearheaded the construction of the New Estadio Chamartin as he felt the original Chamartin wasn’t big enough for the ambitions of the club. The stadium that was built became the largest in Europe at the time. Finally, starting in 1953, Real Madrid began the strategy of acquiring world-class players from abroad as they became the world’s first multinational team at a time when the number of foreign players per European team was limited. This policy was very fruitful as the likes of Alfredo Di Stefano, Paco Gento, and Ferenc Puskas led Real to 12 league titles and 6 European Cups during the 50s and 60s. The club’s stadium was eventually named in honour of Santiago Bernabeu to acknowledge his exceptional leadership as president.
Inspired by the club’s golden era, Florentino Perez set out on replicating the success of that era while making Real Madrid a marketing giant. Perez campaigned for presidency of the club under the premise that, despite winning the Champions League in 2 of the last 3 seasons, the club had enormous debts and had been mismanaged in recent years. He also promised a new aggressive transfer policy that would see Real Madrid sign the biggest superstars in the world, including Luis Figo from fierce rivals Barcelona. Figo would be the first of a series of marquee signings made in each summer of Perez’s tenure at the club. In 2001, they made Zinedine Zidane the world’s most expensive player as he transferred from Italian giants Juventus. The next summer saw Los Blancos splash 46 million euros on Brazilian striker Ronaldo, then in 2003, they signed David Beckham for 37 million euros from Manchester United. In 2004, they made Michael Owen the latest Galactico at the bargain price of 9 million euros with a year remaining in his Liverpool deal. Robinho and Sergio Ramos were the last big signings of the Galactico era as Perez’s first term as president came to an end in 2006. The team he assembled wasn’t completely star-studded, though, as it also featured players signed pre-Perez like Roberto Carlos and Fernando Hierro and a few academy graduates like Raul and Iker Casillas.
How The Galacticos Performed
With such an abundance of talent in the team, you’d imagine that Real Madrid went on to experience an unprecedented amount of success. However, things didn’t go as straightforward as one might think as the Galactico era turned out to be more of a mixed bag than a super smash. To give you a better picture of that period, let me give you a quick rundown of each season during the era.
In 2000-2001, they started the season with a defeat in the UEFA Super Cup but proceeded to have a relatively good year as they won La Liga for the 29th time in their history in a season which saw Raul win the Pichichi Trophy with 24 goals. They also managed to reach the semi-final of the Champions League but suffered an early exit in the Copa del Rey. Overall, it was a decent season.
The following season was great on paper but maybe not so upon closer examination. Real finished 3rd in La Liga, the lowest finish of Vicente del Bosque’s time in charge, and lost in the final of the Copa del Rey. They did salvage the season, though, as they won the Champions League for the 3rd time in 5 years. They also picked up the Spanish Super Cup earlier in the season.
The next season, del Bosque’s last at the club, was the last season that saw the club pick up a respectable piece of silverware in the Galactico era. Real Madrid won the Intercontinental Cup and wrapped up the league title on the final day of the season. They also reached the quarter-final of the Copa del Rey and the semi-final of the Champions League that season. That would be as good as things would get, unfortunately, as Vicente del Bosque was sacked for allegedly not being the right man for the job and was promptly replaced by surprise choice Carlos Queiroz.
03-04 was a season that offered a lot of promise. Especially after the acquisition of David Beckham, but it would end in spectacular disappointment. Real came into April looking at a potential treble with the club sitting at the top of the table in La Liga, a place in the Copa del Rey final secured, and one foot in the Champions League semi-final after a 5-3 win over AS Monaco. The last 6 weeks of the season turned out to be disastrous, however, as Real Madrid were knocked out by Monaco on away goals in the quarter-final; they also lost the last 5 league matches of the season and finished in 4th place. To put the cherry on the cake, they lost the Copa del Rey final after an extra-time goal by Luciano Galletti. What had started as a potentially historic season ultimately ended in complete disaster. The season was only a sign of things to come as Real finished the next 2 seasons trophyless. This saw Florentino Perez resign and bring the Galactico era to an end.
Shortcomings
With this brief but thorough overview of the Galactico era, you might still be wondering whether it’s fair to see them as failures. Well, at a glance,2 league titles, 1 Champions League, 2 Spanish Super Cups, 1 UEFA Super Cup, and an Intercontinental Cup over a 6 year period seems very impressive. But when you consider that the Galactico policy was supposed to make Real Madrid the best and biggest club domestically and in Europe, a measly 3 major honours out of a possible 18 over 6 years seems less majestic. Then also factor in that they went trophyless for 3 consecutive seasons and suffered several humiliating defeats despite having an expensive star-studded team and you suddenly begin to understand why the Galactico era is considered such a failure. Now, you might be wondering why exactly the Galacticos weren’t successful. They had it all, didn’t they? Stars, experience, and most importantly the desire to achieve great things, and yet, here I am talking about their failure to deliver. Although the saying hindsight is 20:20 holds true here, I think there were 3 major reasons, that really should have been clear at the time, as to why the Galacticos were unsuccessful.
Why The Galacticos Ultimately Underperformed
The biggest factor that contributed to the Galacticos’ lack of success was an approach to team building that failed to acknowledge the fundamentals of the game. Perez managed to add the best players in the world to Real Madrid’s squad but in the process, he made the team worse. When he took control of the club, the team had a good balance of attack and defence, with Claude Makelele essentially being the team’s defensive lynchpin in the middle of the park. This setup allowed the likes of Figo and Zidane to express themselves as they knew they had adequate cover behind them. This allowed the Galacticos to pick up 2 league titles and a Champions League trophy in Florentino Perez’s first 3 years at the club. Unfortunately, the immediate success of his acquisitions must have got to Perez’s head as he felt the team could do just as well if not better without Makelele. Makelele had demanded a salary increase to reflect his contributions and importance to the team. This sentiment was shared by Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, and Steven McManaman. The mere notion that Makelele was integral to the team was enough to earn all 3 players, including Makelele, a move from the Bernabeu, with Makelele, in particular, going on to have a very successful spell with Chelsea. Just one summer later, Perez tried to rectify his mistake of letting Makelele go by attempting to sign Patrick Vieira. But, once again, he let his ego get in the way of things as negotiations fell through on the basis that a player in Vieira’s part of the field was simply asking for too much. This all came at the detriment of the team, however, as Perez’s last 3 years at the club were barren. It quickly became apparent that Real Madrid was more concerned with looking good rather than being good. The case of David Beckham is the perfect example of this. Beckham was brought in at a time when Real were expecting the imminent departure of Makelele and the team was in real need of experienced defensive reinforcements. Nonetheless, Beckham was signed. Besides the fact that he was a misallocation of transfer funds, his addition to the squad presented the manager with somewhat of a selection headache as he occupied a position similar to Luis Figo. The team, as you can imagine, did not improve due to his arrival, and in many ways, they regressed. It wasn’t completely negative, though, considering the marketability and fans David Beckham brought to the club, especially in Asia. But, even when you factor that in, it’s hard to make a case for the club’s shallow pursuit of style over substance.
The second contributing factor was the failure to pair this squad of talented individuals with an experienced manager capable of bringing everything together. The trophies del Bosque brought to the club during his 4 years at the Bernabeu were apparently not enough to keep him around as he was sacked at the end of the 02/03 season. For all of his tactical shortcomings, del Bosque was a perfect fit for the Galacticos. Similar to Zidane taking charge of Real Madrid in 2016, del Bosque was a former player who commanded a great deal of respect because of his playing career. Having played for Real Madrid for 16 years and worked behind the scenes for an additional 12, del Bosque had a great understanding of what it meant to play for such a big club and how to manage the egos of such a talented squad. The man who replaced him did not possess similar credentials to del Bosque. Carlos Queiroz was Sir Alex Ferguson’s assistant at Manchester United at the time but he had been the man in charge at a few other clubs and for 3 national teams. In those 11 or so years as a manager, all he had won was 1 domestic cup and a super cup with Sporting Club. Definitely not up to the standard of the stereotypical Real Madrid manager. It wasn’t a surprise then, that, once the time came to eliminate the margin of error, the team completely capitulated and finished so tamely. He wasn’t an outlier in the Galactico era, though, as managers like Vanderlei Luxemborgo and Juan Ramon Lopez Caro got chances at Los Blancos, with replacement after replacement failing to deliver results. If Real had managed to lure Arsene Wenger from Arsenal or convince Carlo Ancelotti to switch the San Siro for the Bernabeu back in 2004, we might be talking today about the great Real Madrid team of the 2000s.
Finally, a large part of the Galacticos’ failure was the inability to handle the pressure that came with being the Galacticos. These were all world-class players with years of experience, but, once a specific tag or label is placed upon you, it changes the dynamic in the dressing room and every result is examined under the microscope. The pressure must have got to them, it seems, as the big players you’d expect to be the difference makers often went missing at the crucial moments. Another thing to consider is that, with the addition of each new Galactico, the margin of error became thinner and thinner and the expectation to succeed grew. The media did them no favours either as many stories were fabricated to exaggerate the results on the pitch and play into the idea of disharmony. The disarray this created only served to worsen the players’ relationship with the famously harsh Real Madrid supporters.
In the end, the pressure, the lack of stability, the media, the fans - all these factors combined to create a frustratingly unsuccessful team. The entire situation and the circumstances at the time proved to be just too much for the Galacticos.
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