Real Madrid – 5 things that come to mind

#2 Galacticos

The first Galacticos

Ah, the Zidanes y Pavones or, in other words, a pseudoword to hide the real motive of signing expensive—and often unnecessary—players more for their commercial power than footballing ability.

It is this very policy that made Florentino Perez the president of the club back 2000. It is also for this reason that the construction magnate had to resign from his post as his decision to sell Claude Makelele and let go of Vicente Del Bosque dismantled the core of the club.

The Galactico policy is simple: buy a superstar that not only plays football well but can also attract a lot of money to the club through image rights and jersey sales. This policy brought in the likes of Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Cristiano Ronaldo, but also failed with Ricardo Kaka.

Nonetheless, Madrid kept at it. While the club might not sign expensive players anymore, they are the ones that began this trend that has seemingly gone out of control with 9 figure signing becoming a thing of normalcy in football.