Jimmy Burns - The Real Deal: A History of Real Madrid

The Real Deal

Jimmy Burns

Jimmy Burns 2012

Jimmy Burns has asserted his rights under the Copyright, Design and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

First published in 2004 by Penguin Books Ltd

This edition published in 2012 by Endeavour Press Ltd.

Contents

Acknowledgements

To Tom, David, and Maria-Belen

'Trophies tell the whole story; the result of wise presidential administrations, the talent of great players, the fascinating power of an impressive stadium and the unswerving support of Spain's most loyal and numerous fans. Trophies are equivalents of victories, triumph won through the ages, on a variety of pitches and competitions. Trophies are tangible details, concrete facts that define the holder without need for clichs. Each trophy won closes a period of time in which Real Madrid was better than its rivals. The end result is the sum of these trophies, and the well-deserved title of the Best Club of All Time - the Best Club in History.'

Posted at the entrance to the Real Madrid museum.

Foreword

When I signed off on the first version of this book in the summer of 2004 I suggested that Real Madrid, thanks to the weight of its own history and the power of its organisation would live on, long after Beckham had left it. And so it proved.

Beckham moved from Spain to California at the end of the 2007 season under a deal signed with Los Angeles Galaxy. For all its celebrity status, and commitment on the pitch, Beckhams time at Real Madrid coincided with three relatively lean years for the club in trophy terms, just one League title win - an underachievement blamed less on Beckham than on a succession of managers and high profile signings that failed to translate into a clearly defined team ethos and style.

Following his departure to the US, Beckhams celebrity in Spain proved ephemeral. He disappeared from the attention of the local sports media and Spanish advertisers and sponsors, and failed to take his place among the great legends of the club. His exit was preceded by the resignation of club president Florentino Perez who quit after effectively admitting that his policy of filling the team with high-profile attacking players - galcticos - had been a failure.

Nevertheless Perez, one of Spains big construction magnates - a personal fortune made in the days before the Spanish housing bubble burst and with allies that cut across the political divide - was re-elected to the club presidency in June 2009. With most Spaniards unaware of the crisis that was about to hit them in economic and political terms, Perezs manifesto suggested that he had recovered his faith in himself as the great torch bearer of the Santiago Bernabeu legacy-promising another golden era of great players, and memorable conquests. We will work to create a spectacular project, and that is to make Real Madrid the best club in the world once more," Perez declared after being elected for the third time in a decade. A club like Real Madrid needs to have several of the best players in the world, he added.

Subsequent signings emulated the ambition and surpassed the expense of the earlier galactico period. Within days of his taking his post again, Perez had signed up Milans Brazilian superstar Kak, Olympique Lyonanais Karim Benzema, and Manchester Uniteds Cristiano Ronaldo, whose own 80m fee compared to the 25m paid to the same club for Beckham. Other early signings by the restored Perez regime included the Spanish midfielder Xabi Alonso bought from Liverpool for around 30m.

In the following months, it became clear that the Perez project needed a coach with sufficient personality and proven track record of success at the highest level if it was to not only compete with but also restore its dominance over FC Barcelona, and conquer not just Spain, but the world.

At the end of the 2009-2010 season, Perez turned to the Special One in what many Real Madrid fans greeted as a story foretold. Jos Mourinho was ordained Real Madrids manager with his career seemingly on the ascendancy since start of a new millennium. Bobby Robsons one-time assistant and translator at FC Barcelona had gone on to win seventeen trophies since 2002 with top clubs in Portugal, England, and Italy, including a Champions League with Porto, and two league championships and one FA Cup with Chelsea. He had gone on to end Inters 65 year old drought in European competitions, and to win the treble while eliminating Barca in the process in 2009/10 season.

Mouirinho wasted little time after his arrival in reshaping his squad around his needs, shedding two of the clubs old-timers, Gutti and the legendary Raul, and bringing a mixture of veterans he trusted - Ricardo Carvalho - and young bloods with confirmed international star status like the Argentine Angel di Maria, and the Germans Sami Khederia and Mesuta Ozil.

Together with Iker Casillas, one of the best goalkeepers in the world, and a group of superstars led by a hungry for success Cristiano Ronaldo, Real Madrid began to be moulded the Mourinho way with a mixture of tough training, enlightened tactics (solid in defence, formidable on the counter-attack), and psychology. In the first season it was the latter that Mourinho used to greatest effect, not only to consolidate his power over the dressing room and keep Perezs interference at a workable distance - but principally to try and undermine Pep Guardiola, whose success at FC Barcelona belied his relative lack of managerial experience.

Against the background of deepening political divisions in Spain, the rivalry between the countrys two biggest clubs descend to one of its most aggressive and abusive periods in its history, with Mourinho standing out as the main agent provocateur in Spanish football, creation tensions among the players of the Spanish national squad. But he also succeeded in gaining ground on FC Barcelona, clinching the Copa del Rey in his first season, and the League and the Spanish Super Cup in his second. Conquest had always mattered in Real Madrid. Mourinho had made it seem as if belonged to the club by temperament and right.

1. Star Chasing

In the summer of 2003 Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu stadium was undergoing some major renovation work befitting the ambitions of the world's self-proclaimed greatest football club, and in line with UEFA regulations. Late on the last sultry night of August, David Beckham emerged from the dressing room and into a building site and there among the dust, like a proverbial phoenix rising from the ashes, calmly ran the gauntlet of the world's media, smiling like he hadn't done for a while.

Packs of Englishmen and Spaniards combined with Frenchmen and Japanese, squeezing tight and struggling with cameras and microphones to pick up Beckham's every utterance, however bland and inconsequential. If there was a story yesterday and today and tomorrow, he was it, no question. Nearby, the large room set aside for the official press conference with the manager Carlos Queiroz, remained empty. Other players walked past and out, ignoring without difficulty the half-hearted pleas for a comment. Beckham by contrast seemed not only the focus of attention but to be almost glowing in the white light.

'If there are doubts about me, it's up to me to silence them,' said Beckham, walking slowly along the metal fence, which barely separated him from the frenzied media serum. He wanted to leave no one in any doubt about his mood of elation, as he continued, 'I am the happiest I've been in a year and a half.' Or his sense of diplomacy and place. Yes, he had started learning Spanish because he was looking forward to a 'long time in Madrid'. And no, he wasn't about to declare himself politically, still less show disrespect for the Spaniards and their football by claiming to be the best.

'There are no easy games in Spain, there are so many great players and teams,' he said, before confiding that Queiroz - the quiet unassuming Portuguese former assistant manager to Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United - had advised him to go out and express himself as well as play for the team. It was the kind of responsibility Beckham believed himself capable of giving to any team, whether it was Real Madrid or his country - an Englishman abroad who was still a patriot. But there were words of wisdom still to come.