Will the 2024 Galácticos achieve the same as the 2000s?
Fans across the world were shocked: only 31 players had played for El Clasico rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona in 2000, Luis Figo made it 32. The Portuguese winger had achieved seven trophies in total including two La Liga titles over Real Madrid. Figo was considered a hero in Barcelona, on the balcony of the Palace of the Catalan Generality Figo had exclaimed to the adoring Culers (Barcelona supporters) below “Whites weep. Congratulate the champions.” For 5 years, he had gained the support and admiration from the Catalan club and was widely thought of being an honorary Catalan himself.
Yet in July 2000, Real Madrid met the £37 million buyout clause in Figo’s contract, a new world record fee. From Real’s trophy room Figo told the mass of shocked journalists, "it was a difficult and important decision, but on top of everything, at this moment, I had to think only of myself and for that reason I made this decision.” Figo had made the biggest betrayal: Real and Barca are almost opposites on every spectrum. Barcelona is a symbol for Catalan identity, with their slogan “More than a club” relating to their importance to the region, while Real are considered Spain’s team and representing Spanish nationalism. But what this meant for football was the first domino falling in Real’s Presidents grand plan.
Florentino Perez was voted in as President of Real Madrid largely on the promise that his first action would be to sign Figo. Figo was the best player of Real Madrid’s biggest rivals and possibly the best player in world at the time. Figo denied he would leave, telling teammate Pep Guardiola that he was not leaving. However, a day later Alfredo Di Stefano (a legendary Real player with controversial transfer history between the clubs) presented Figo to the world with the famous white shirt of Madrid. Upon his first game at the Camp Nou with his new team, Figo was greeted with banners calling him “Judas” and cigarette lighters and oranges hurled at him like a medieval criminal in the stocks. Most famously, a pig’s head was bowled at him.
Perez had developed a new transfer policy at Real. The idea was to bring in a Figo-like superstar every year. A Galáctico. While Real have always been able to pull the biggest names to the Spanish capital, they had never done it like this. Perez was so committed he even sold the training ground, the Ciudad Deportiva, for €480 million to clear debts.
The next year, with some pocket change left, Real decided to break the world record fee again signing French phenomenon Zinedine Zidane from Juventus. Success naturally followed. Zidane’s goal against Barca in the semi-finals helped Real reach the Champions League final in Scotland where he scored the winner, this time against Bayer Leverkusen with “That Volley.”
Ronaldo (the one before Cristiano), David Beckham and Micheal Owen all followed through the door in the following seasons. Ironically during this period Barcelona fans had the last laugh with arguably more successful during the Galáctico period. This time success didn’t follow. In Perez’s first stunt as President between 2000 and 2006, only two La Liga titles and a Champions League with the perceived best players in the world. While these Galáctico achieved individual success with Ballon D’ors with most notably a loss to underdogs AS Monaco in 2004 and in the 2004-05 season with all this attacking flair no Real player scored more than four goals the whole Champions League tournament.
In 2006, Perez lost his re-election campaign and what seemed to be the Perez Galácticos era had come to an end. While that had achieved the feat of European champions, overall, the dominance that was expected didn’t come to fruition.
“I think it comes down to this,” Figo said when he joined Real in 2000. “I had to think only of myself,” and that was the problem. It's happened so many times in sports, a team that has too many star individuals, who think they will become all-conquering and yet experiment fails. Brazil at the 1998 World Cup, Nadal and Djokovic doubles team in 2010 and Brooklyn Nets in 2021 all examples of teams that should’ve won something.
June 2009, Perez strikes back, winning back the Presidency. He starts in Perezidan fashion signing world’s best Kaka. This second Galácticos era was far more successful on and off the pitch. Cristiano Ronaldo leading the front line for the majority of the time, four Champions Leagues were won and Real became one of the world’s biggest commercial entities with 169 million Instagram followers. With Ronaldo leaving as well as countless others in 2018, the second Galácticos era had come to an end.
Vinícius Jr assisted by Bellingham’s pass put Real 2-0 up and eight minutes later for the 15th time, the Los Blancos were crowned champions in June. It was only the beginning. This past summer Brazilian wonderkid, Endrick, and World Cup Final hattrick scorer Mbappe were greeted by a packed out Bernabeu. Now with Mbappe, Bellingham and Vinícius Jr Real Madrid are second favourites, to Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City, to win the competition again.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” - Joseph Anthony Wittreich1. Real have now signed one of the world’s best again and are linked to defensive improvements in January such as Davies and Alexander-Arnold. It feels like with all these big stars we could see more big egos overshadow the success of the previous season. They have already lost El Clasico 4-0 to a Barcelona team which seems full of youth and enthusiasm.
Overall, it comes down to Carlo Ancelotti to sort it out. The Italian is a serial winner and knows how to deal with big egos, but a manager can only do so much. Personally, it seems that Perez could have ruined the European champions dealing Ancelotti a hand with too many kings in it and he doesn’t know who to play first. Like too much air has been pumped into the Los Blancos balloon and a few more Galácticos could pop it. With an upcoming trip to Premier League toppers Liverpool at Anfield coming up this will be a real test of the Galácticos ability to work as a team.