(Spanish for galactics, referring to superstars) are expensive, world-famous football players recruited during the "galácticos" policy pursued by Florentino Pérez during his presidency at Real Madrid, where in his first tenure between 2000 and 2006, he purchased at least one galáctico in the summer of every year. The club's second galáctico era began in 2009 with Pérez's return to presidency, and is considered to be more successful both economically and in terms of on-pitch achievements.
The term itself carries both positive and negative connotations. Initially, it was used to emphasise the greatness of the superstar players being signed and the construction of a world-class team. Later, the term developed a more negative connotation, with galáctico becoming associated with prima donna and being used to deride the transfer policy and team built under it, following media perception that the policy at Real in the early 2000s had failed to deliver the expected levels of success.
The term has occasionally been used to describe other teams, both in football and in other sports, that have been perceived to follow a similar policy. For example, British rugby union commentator Martin Gillingham called French club Toulon "rugby's galácticos" in 2012 due to a wave of signings of international stars by owner Mourad Boudjellal.
Origins Although the term was popularized in the 2000s, the origins of the Galáctico policy date as far back as the 1950s and 1960s, when the policy was first founded by club-president Santiago Bernabéu. Bernabéu signed multiple star players for large fees in quick succession, such as Alfredo Di Stéfano, Francisco Gento, Raymond Kopa, Héctor Rial, Ferenc Puskás and José Santamaría. This period of buying allowed Real Madrid to enjoy their finest era of dominance, winning twelve La Liga championships and six European Cups.
The Galácticos transfer policy was contrasted with the Quinta del Buitre era of the late 1980s. This saw Real Madrid playing a more physical and less appealing style of football, and had an increased emphasis on producing homegrown players such as Emilio Butragueño, Manolo Sanchís, Rafael Martín Vázquez, Míchel and Miguel Pardeza. This period allowed Real Madrid to also enjoy domestic and European success, winning five La Liga championships and two UEFA Cups.
The term Galácticos in reference to this team is often credited to Jaume Ortí, president of Valencia CF, who challenged Real Madrid to honours in the early 2000s. The term in general goes back further, with Mundo Deportivo finding a reference in 1988 describing FC Barcelona signing Julio Salinas as a Galáctico.
First galáctico era
The first galáctico era is considered to be synonymous with the presidency of Florentino Pérez between 2000–2006, from the signing of Luís Figo in 2000, to the departure of Zinedine Zidane in 2006. The first Pérez era brought:
Luís Figo – signed in 2000 for €60 million from Barcelona. Claude Makélélé - signed in 2000 for €14 million from Celta de Vigo Zinedine Zidane – signed in 2001 for €73.5 million from Juventus. Ronaldo – signed in 2002 for €45 million from Inter. David Beckham – signed in 2003 for €37.5 million from Manchester United. Michael Owen – signed in 2004 for €9 million from Liverpool. Robinho – signed in 2005 for €24 million from Santos. Sergio Ramos – signed in 2005 for €27 million from Sevilla.
Several other players were often considered to be a part of the galácticos legacy due to their influence on the team during that period, despite being signed previously to the reign of Pérez, or being graduates of the youth system. These included: Fernando Hierro – signed pre-Pérez in 1989 for €1 million from Valladolid. Raúl – graduated from youth system in 1994. Guti – graduated from youth system in 1995. Roberto Carlos – signed pre-Pérez in 1996 for €3.5 million from Inter. Fernando Morientes – signed pre-Pérez in 1997 for €6.6 million from Zaragoza. Iván Helguera – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €4.5 million from Espanyol. Míchel Salgado – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for €11 million from Celta. Steve McManaman – signed pre-Pérez in 1999 for free-transfer from Liverpool. Iker Casillas – graduated from youth system in 1999.
2000–2006: Pérez's first presidency Though Real Madrid had already won two European Cups in 1998 and 2000 under the presidency of Lorenzo Sanz, Sanz lost his re-election bid to Pérez. Pérez won by promising an aggressive new transfer policy and expensive new signings, in particular, Luís Figo from rivals Barcelona.
Pérez then sold the club's training ground, the Ciudad Deportiva, for €480 million, allowing Real to clear debts, and build a replacement training complex at a fraction of the cost. It also allowed for significant funds to be used for player transfers. The deal to sell the complex was later investigated by the EU on illegal-competition grounds, however, no charges were brought.
After the purchase of Figo for €62 million, a world-record transfer fee, Pérez sought to buy at least one world-class superstar player (dubbed a galáctico) each summer. The record was broken a year later by the purchase of Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for €75 million. After a demand for youth integration in the side, which coincided with the appointment of Vicente del Bosque, the policy was redubbed as "Zidanes y Pavones", with the name deriving from Zidane and Francisco Pavón, a product from the club's youth academy — the idea was to sign one major superstar per year, and promote youth players sporadically.
Florentino Pérez was also fond of Francesco Totti, a world-class trequartista (attacking midfielder) who played for Roma at the time, and tried to sign him in order to perfect the galácticos squad, but was rejected, as the Italian number 10 remained out of loyalty to his Roman club. Totti has stated in an interview that the Los Blancos even sent him "a No.10 shirt with ‘Totti’ on it" to show their earnestness.
Initial success Immediate success followed for three seasons, with Real winning La Liga in 2000–01 and 2002–03, and claiming the UEFA Champions League in 2001–02, with Zidane scoring the winning goal in the final. After winning the 2002–03 La Liga title, Real Madrid added English midfielder David Beckham from Manchester United for €35 million. Beckham's status as a world-class footballer, in addition to his heavily publicized marriage to pop star Victoria Adams, resulted in Real Madrid gaining great advertising potential around the world, especially in Asia. By further promoting the other superstar players in various marketing campaigns in the continent, the club became the world's richest club in terms of revenue in 2005–06.
Despite expectations of continued dominance in domestic and European competition, the club failed to win any trophy for the next three seasons. They also suffered from elimination in the UEFA Champions League, exiting in the 2004 quarter-finals, and two consecutive exits in Round of 16 in 2005 and 2006. In the same period, Barcelona won successive La Liga titles in 2005 and 2006, along with the Champions League in 2006.
Perceived failure Several reasons have been proposed in the media for the failure of the galáctico policy:
A lack of interest in defensive talent harmed the team, as potential transfers were overlooked because Pérez did not want to pay large wages to defensive players. Shortly after signing Beckham, Claude Makélélé departed the team when the club refused to raise his relatively low salary, despite him being widely considered as one of the best defensive midfielders in the world and key to the team. Negotiations to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal in 2004 failed for similar reasons. The defensive players signed by Pérez during this period, namely Walter Samuel, Thomas Gravesen, Jonathan Woodgate, Cicinho, Carlos Diogo and Pablo García, all for high fees, underperformed while playing for the club, with Woodgate seeming the only potential success, his time being compounded by severe injuries. Sergio Ramos, who joined Real Madrid for €27 million in the summer of 2005 from Sevilla, failed to shine until Pérez's departure in 2006. Pavón, one-half of the Zidanes y Pavones policy, never lived up to expectation and left the club in 2007. The shock firing of coach Vicente del Bosque, who won two Champions League titles, and led Real Madrid to their 29th league championship in the 2002–03 season. It has been suggested that there was a political split, with del Bosque and his players (namely Hierro, Morientes, Steve McManaman and Makélélé), against the policy Pérez instituted. Three of the aforementioned players had backed a significant wage raise for Makélélé, and they all left the club shortly after del Bosque's departure. More importantly, del Bosque was able to balance the many different egos of the players in the star studded team, considering that several galácticos were all competing for the same position. Without del Bosque, the superstar players placed together failed to form a cohesive footballing unit, indicating that having a large number of very talented, renowned individual footballers did not effectively translate into a great footballing team. Lack of stability and interference by Pérez, who appointed Carlos Queiroz, an assistant manager at United, in the week following the arrival of Beckham and dismissal of del Bosque. Queiroz was allegedly forced to pick the star players, regardless of form or performance on the pitch in order to maximise on marketing potential, and had limited input into tactical decisions. McManaman later described this as the "Disneyfication of Real Madrid" in his autobiography. Queiroz was later fired after only one trophyless season in 2003–04, with Real suffering in subsequent years from high turnover in non-playing staff, with four managers and four directors of football in the four years following del Bosque's firing in 2003. Signings for non-footballing (marketing) reasons, namely in regards to Beckham. Beckham, a natural right winger, joined the club partly due to his huge popularity in Asia. This meant Figo, another right winger already at the club, had to compete for a starting berth at the club. The signings of two high-profile players in the same position meant one or the other was forced to play out of position in many games, with Beckham in central-defensive midfield when Figo was on the right, or Figo on the left or centre when Beckham occupied the right. One former club director also reportedly quoted saying that Beckham was signed for his good looks and Ronaldinho, who joined Barcelona the same summer, was too "ugly" to play for Real Madrid. While Real Madrid failed to win any trophy for three straight seasons, Ronaldinho would lead the powerful resurgence of Barcelona; and furthermore he proved to be one of the most marketable players during that time. The 2003 pre-season Asian tour catered more to the needs of the club's marketing than to its players' preparations. Shortly after Beckham joined the club, the team embarked on an 18-day summer tour in Asia, to cash in on his worldwide appeal. It included exhibition matches in Beijing, Tokyo, Hong Kong and Bangkok, which alone earned the club €10 million. Some have compared this tour with the first visit of The Beatles to the United States in 1964. Although lucrative and generating wide publicity, the preparation value of preseason in Asia was questionable, as the team failed to adequately prepare for the following season. It was exhausting for the players, as endless rounds of publicity engagements and restrictions on the players' freedom of movement (due to the team hotel being besieged by fans). Most players admitted that they would have preferred a low-profile training camp and/or to have been home in Spain for the pre-season, instead of playing meaningless show matches against low quality opponents.