Florentino Pérez reign (2000-2006, 2009-)

The summer of 2003

Pérez decided to not renew the contract of Vicente del Bosque who had led Real to two Champions League victories. The decision wasn’t performance related given del Bosque had led Real to another league title and the Champions League semi-finals.

• From 2003-2006, Pérez hired and fired five managers.

With the chance to sign Paris Saint-Germain starlet Ronaldinho, Pérez stated Ronaldinho was “too ugly to market” and instead decided to sign David Beckham.

• From 2003-2006, Pérez watched on as a Ronaldinho influenced Barcelona won two La Liga titles and the 2005-2006 Champions League title.

In three seasons with Claude Makélélé in the starting line up, Real Madrid won seven trophies including the 2001-2002 UEFA Champions League. Makélélé asked for a salary increase to which Pérez promptly refused and said this after Chelsea signed Makélélé, “We will not miss Makélelé. His technique is average, he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and ninety percent of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways. He wasn’t a header of the ball and he rarely passed the ball more than three metres. Younger players will arrive who will cause Makélelé to be forgotten”.

• Zinedine Zidane disagreed with this famous quote, “Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley [the signing of Beckham] when you are losing the entire engine? [the forced departure of Makélélé]“
• From 2003-2006, Pérez refused to buy another player competent enough to fill the Makélélé role, Real went trophyless leading to the resignation of Pérez.

The summer of 2009

Manuel Pellegrini pleads with Pérez to keep Wesley Sneijder and Arjen Robben however Pérez disagrees and sells Robben to Bayern Munich and Sneijder to Inter Milan much to the chagrin of Pellegrini who later said, “It’s no good having an orchestra with the 10 best guitarists if I don’t have a pianist”.

• Sneijder and Robben would lead their respective clubs to the Champions League final whilst Real bombed out in the round of 16 to Lyon.

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