Los Galacticos: The Genesis & The Success So Far

Football is one unique sport that is synonymous with the parading of superstars that graced the field of play for every professional football club because they are the main protagonist who is always the thick of things on the pitch, as such for a fact known to the whole world, the primary assignment & objective of every football club is to win trophies and also make a lot of cash through winning either on the home front or on the continent.

With the introduction up there, no doubt some big clubs have at one point or the other enjoyed the glamour and the attractiveness some football stars brought into their club by attracting big brands and investors because of the player’s huge fan base and reputation. And talking about a club that had and would still continue to enjoy such is no other than arguably the finest and biggest team in the world Real Madrid.

The ‘Los Blancos‘ as they are christened by their fans, did achieve everything a football club could think of winning right from their inception upon till the new millennium, with a record 33 League titles, 19 Copa Del Rey titles, 13 European Cup/Champions League, 2 UEFA Cup, 4 FIFA Club World Cup, 3 Intercontinental Cup, 4 UEFA Super Cup, 11 Supercopa de Espana among other titles, with all of these great achievements, Real Madrid are second to none when it comes to winning a competition, they usually see it as their birthright and as such they’ve been dubbed the greatest football club of all time not because of anything but because of their achievement and reputation in the world of soccer.

Today, Cheapgoals will in this piece take a look at arguably the biggest and finest football club in the world, most especially on how the term ‘Los Galacticos’ became associated with the Spanish giant, the Genesis and the achievement so far since the term became synonymous with them.

Right from the inception of Real Madrid, great players have always donned the traditional white and white jersey of Los Blancos, and among the great players that have donned the jersey of Real Madrid include club legends like Alfredo Di Stefano, Ferenc Puskas, and many more.

But then before we go deeper into the business of the day, first off let us have a sense of what the term ‘Galacticos’ means. The term Galacticos is a Spanish word that literally means Galatics, which in English simply means Galaxy of stars.

In the real sense of it, Madrid fans believe that Galacticos is a term used for expensive, talented, and famous players of Real Madrid, even the neutrals sees them as the Galacticos anytime a talented and famous player is been signed by the club.

The Genesis Of  Los Galacticos

Galacticos policy first began in the 1950s, when the then President of Real Madrid Santiago Bernabeu first adopted the idea of bringing foreign players to compliment their own Spanish players, basically homegrown player, Bernabeu impelled the Galacticos policy during his reign and succeeded in bringing in club legends like Ferenc Puskas, Alfredo Di Stefano, Santillana, Kopa, and many more to the team.

Bernabeu ideas to bring in foreign players gave birth to a lot of success for the club, with Alfredo Di Stefano ‘The Golden Arrow’ as he was christened by the fans and the rest of the park took Spain and Europe by surprise, achieving success by winning Spanish titles, 5 Europeans Cup, 1 Copa Del Rey, 1 Intercontinental Cup for Los Merengues.

After the reigns of Santiago Bernabeu, another brilliant and wonderful Real Madrid President that also tried in continuing the idea or legacy of the club, and the President is no other than the late Lorenzo Sanz who kicked the bucket in a battle to the coronavirus pandemic a few months ago.

Sanz reign with Los Blancos spun for five years, and during his five-year reign he won six trophies and the team dominated that period with players like Croatia legend Davor Suker who churned like a million star at the 1998 World Cup in France and most importantly at the Euros, Predrag Mijatovic a very good friend to Sanz, Clarence Seedorf, and Roberto Carlos who was signed from Inter Milan, all of the names mentioned were players Sanz signed during that period.

Without mincing words, Sanz wasn’t just a President, he was also a well rounded Madrid fan, and his reign was one of the sweetest moment in the memories of all Madrid fans, most especially when they won their seventh European Cup after waiting patiently for 38 years to lay their hands on the trophy again, but in 1997-98 the dry spell was broken when they defeated Juventus in the final of the Champions League.

As one of Sanz project, Mijatovic gave the Madrid faithful the title they had longed for in 38 years with another in 2000 against Valencia, with all of the success Lorenzo Sanz achieved with Madrid his name will never be forgotten in the history and will live long in the memories of every fan connected to ‘Los Blancos’.

Sanz’s reign came to an end after losing the election to the current president Florentino Perez, recall that the Galacticos idea or policy has been on right from the time of late President and legend Santiago Bernabeu, which the late President Lorenzo Sanz also took upon himself to continue during his five years reign, however, one unique and very popular President who officially kicked start spending huge fee on foreign players who are talented and famous to start the Galacticos era proper is no other than Florentino Perez.

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The era started properly under the leadership of Perez after winning the Presidency election against Sanz in 2000, which means the best of the best player in the world would be signed at the end of every season without minding the financial consequences or how much such player would cost, as such Perez’s motive in starting the Galacticos era proper was to push Madrid up the ladder as one of the richest team in the world and also to boost the financial condition of the club, which in one way or the other gives the fans the belief that their darling club could go all out to bring in superstars into the team.

FIRST GALACTICOS ERA

The first Galacticos project began when Florentino Perez won the election against Sanz in 2000, during that period it was more like a ritual for every contesting President of Los Blancos to promise something huge and crazy while campaigning and addressing the fans, so in other words, prior to the 2000 election against the incumbent President Sanz, Perez made a huge and crazy promise to the fans that if he wins the election is going to sign Luis Figo from Barcelona, so as promised when he came out triumphant in the election he signed Luis Figo from Barcelona the arch-rival of Madrid.

Luis Figo exit from Barcelona brought about a lot of uproar from the Calatan fans, having been signed up for a world record fee of £38.7 million, Figo’s exit was the kind of move that put a lot of bitter taste in the mouth of the Barcelona faithful, while he’s betrayal brought in a lot of happiness and joy for the Madrid fans.

In fact not only that, joining Madrid makes the club more marketable, boosted Madrid’s popularity, improved the quality of the team, and also pushed the club further up the ladder for top brands to partner with them.

During that time, the idea of Perez concerning the team was that if any team scored 2 against Madrid, with the superstars in the team they can as well score 4 to 5 goals, even with that assertion by Perez, Madrid has a man in the middle of the park who was the engine room of the team, runs the ship known as ‘Galacticos’ so before any team could infiltrate the Madrid defense such team must be able to go past Makelele in the middle.

After the first project or first Galactico was signed from Barcelona, another talented, brilliant and famous player was also brought in from Seria A specifically Juventus the following season 2001, for another record fee of £44 million which denied the rivalry which we often see between Ronaldo and Messi, had it been Zinedine Zidane wasn’t signed by Perez from Juventus we could have seen a Ronaldo and Messi like rivalry because then without mincing words both players were head and shoulder above other players despite Zidane playing in the Italian league and Figo playing in the Spanish league, though debatable anyway.

Zidane’s move to Madrid gave the fans absolute joy as they always enjoyed watching their darling team play beautifully, which made the fans ask for more, talking of asking for more Perez continued in fulfilling the promise he made to the fans by signing another galactico. Ronaldo De Lima Nazario in 2002 from Inter Milan after a brilliant and impressive performance at the World Cup, Ronaldo was brought for £26 million to continue the Galacticos project.

The following season the glamour boy of football was also signed for £25 million from Manchester United to fill the void left by Makalele who was unceremoniously pushed out of Real Madrid.

The signing of David Beckham from Manchester United brought a lot of dividends for Madrid financially, and the fan base also experienced a huge uprising when he joined, in 2004 Michael Owen was also signed from Liverpool for £8 million and Antonio Nunez, although many don’t see them as a Galactico in terms of abilities. However, Owen was able to register double-digit goals despite playing sparingly from the bench in his first season with Los Blancos.

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Meanwhile, some other players were also in that team back then that were also classified as Galacticos, such as Iker Casillas who grew into the first from the Castilla, basically a homeboy, Roberto Carlos who was signed from Inter Milan by Lorenzo Sanz when he was at the helms of affairs, and Raul Blanco Gonzalez another home-grown player from the Castilla.

Iker Casillas, Guti, and Raúl had already established themselves as a part of the club’s core. The trio had come through La Fabrica, and all were in their early twenties. This didn’t fit the Pérez agenda, however. He wanted international stars for continental success in order to create a hegemonic global brand fuelled by merchandising

So in the thick of the Galacticos project, Florentino Perez basically called the policy ‘The Zidane’s & The Pavon’s‘ which simply means that Madrid would buy world bitters footballers and also promote a player from their youth system to form the fulcrum of the team.

La Fabrica had been historically effective, but it wasn’t beautiful. Record-breaking transfer fees, astronomical salaries, and instantly recognizable names were the new necessities to push the Real Madrid brand. When “ The Zidane’s & Pavones” became an idea, it was instantly superseded by “Los Galacticos”. The Pavones didn’t stand a chance.

Fortunately for Florentino Perez, the policy paid off handsomely when they win the league twice, and also produced one Champion League as Luis Figo and Zinedine Zidane were the main orchestra of that winning side, although the likes of Ronaldo De Lima and David Beckham didn’t win the Champions League with Los Blancos.

They brought a lot of flamboyance and glamour into the team when they faced opposition team with Ronaldo and Raul upfront. Luis Figo on the flank bursting things and giving defenders big headache, Zidane dictating play from the middle of the park with his creativity and dribbling skills, though some neutrals were of the opinion that the Galacticos project didn’t achieve enough but then watching them play gave the fans lot of joy.

The second Galacticos project looks eminent when the team was going through a torrid time on the pitch of play and in the dressing room, what led to torrid time was when Makalele was unceremoniously pushed out of the team, and that decision led to the exit of the captain of the team Fernando Hierro and team manager Del Bosque, things got difficult the more when Del Bosque left and Madrid kept suffering both on the home front and in the Champions League.

The club suffering and crisis kept getting tougher, Perez realized things weren’t going on fine plus the fact that the Galacticos project was already whining down, so Florentino Perez stepped down as President mainly because of the decline in the team which was evident in their loss to Arsenal in Champions League round of 16.

Following their exit from the Champions League round of 16, Zinedine Zidane retired, thereafter Ronaldo and Beckham also left, Luis Figo also on the other hands left for Inter Milan and that put an end to Perez’s first Galacticos era, though the fans savor all of the wonderful moments when things were going smoothly and when things were also not going fine they did enjoy it to the fullest. But then the project did put Real Madrid on the front burner as one of the best teams in the world.

Just like I said earlier that the another Galacticos era looks imminent when the first Galacticos project of Perez declined, so in Perez’s second return some years after he stepped down, he came back with a bang after some time off, when he came back into the role of President he shocked the world of football and the transfer market with the signings of Kaka from AC Milan for a transfer fee of €67 million.

Which at that time was the second-highest transfer fee ever behind the transfer of Zinedine Zidane, Benzema from Lyon for a transfer fee worth over €35 million to sign a six-year contract with Los Blancos, and Xabi Alonso from Liverpool for a transfer fee around £30 million in the same season.

SECOND GALACTICOS ERA

All of the players mentioned formed the fulcrum of the team with Cristiano Ronaldo who was signed by Ramon Calderon from Manchester United in 2009 for a world record fee worth £80 million. However, the narratives of who signed Ronaldo for Madrid will continue to be asked as his signing divides opinion.

The most important thing was that they combined well to achieved great success for Los Blancos as the second Galacticos era looked more similar in nature to the ones Perez signed when he first came in as the President.

Florentino Perez as he was known by the Madrid fans wasn’t just the club President, he was a successful businessman, embarking on another Galacticos project he had a business plan to recuperate all of the money he spent on all of the players through marketing which really worked well for him when he signed the likes of Figo, Zidane, Beckham, and Ronaldo De Lima.

When Ronaldo moved to Madrid he sold over 100 million euros worth of shirts in the first week of arrival for Real Madrid, same also applies to Kaka and Benzema when they joined.

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Other players that also form part of the second Galacticos era, includes Angel Di Maria signed in 2010 for €25 million from Benfica, Luka Modric from Tottenham Hotspur for €32 million, Gareth Bale also from Tottenham Hotspur for €100 million, Toni Kroos from Bayern Munich for €24 million and the World Cup Most Valuable Player James Rodriguez who joined Real Madrid from AS Monaco for €76 million.

All of these players were managed by Carlos Ancelotti, he won the Copa Del Rey, and also win the champions league to achieved their La Decima as the trio of Benzema, Bale, and Cristiano dubbed ‘BBC’ finished the season with a combined 97 goals, they also won the UEFA Super Cup against Sevilla.

The second Los Galacticos era also achieved a lot of success under the tutelage of a former player and legend of the club Zinedine Zidane who won back to back Champions League for Real Madrid against Atletico Madrid, Juventus, and Liverpool, so for a fact, the second Galacticos era also produced a lot of success in Europe but their achievement in the league was limited.

Now that Ronaldo has left for Juventus, Bale looking more like a player that would leave soon, James Rodriguez not as important like when he joined under Ancelotti, Modric who isn’t as swashbuckling as before, Sergio Ramos captain fantastic who doesn’t look like a player that would stay for three or four seasons again, even though he isn’t showing any signs of sluggishness in his game, and Benzema who also looks like he’s using his last season with Madrid, all of these makes you have that feeling that we are poised for another third Galacticos era which looks imminent.

While not the entirety of Perez Los Galactico’s project has satisfied the fans expectations and dominance despite everything hasn’t materialized in the last decade, the Galacticos project absolutely established the frameworks for Madrid’s ongoing hegemony over European football, which amazingly saw Los Blancos achieved four Champions League titles between 2013 and 2018.

During this era, the nature of the club’s signings discernibly changed, with young talents coming in from the academy, less established famous and talented [alyers are being promoted ahead of big names, such as the rise of Marcos Asencio, Fredrico Valverde, Rodrygo Goes and all.

So if the report were anything to go by and most especially for who Florentino Perez is, then we should expect the third Galacticos project which has already started with the signing of Eden Hazard from Chelsea, although he claimed he isn’t a Galactico yet.

With Madrid been linked with Kylian Mbappe and Erling Brut Haaland and some couple of decent players, then we should expect them to don the white jersey of Real Madrid in the future which is just a matter of time before the deal would be concluded.