Real Madrid is considered by many to be the best football club in the world. There are many reasons for this opinion. The club's history, its achievements, its heritage all support these thoughts.
PART 1: FLORENTINO PEREZ
Florentino Perez became president of Real Madrid in 2000. Perez's first term was a controversial one at Real Madrid. At that time, Perez had the idea of transferring many important football players of the world under the name of 'Los Galacticos' project and he realized it. In his first year, Perez transferred Barcelona's football player Luis Figo for 60 million Euros. This transfer was the record for the highest transfer fee paid for a player in those years. A year later, another transfer record was broken. Real Madrid broke the transfer record once again by paying 76 million euros for Zinedine Zidane, who played for Juventus. Real Madrid and Perez did not stop the following year and signed Ronaldo for €45 million and David Beckham for €37 million in the summer of 2004. These transfer fees may seem very normal from today's perspective. However, in those years, the money paid for these transfers was very expensive.
In the first 6 years of Florentino Perez, Real Madrid won the Spanish LaLiga championship twice and the Champions League once. A total of 430 million euros was spent for transfers in 6 years. But no major trophy was won in the last 3 years. As a result, President Perez stepped down as president in February 2006.
PART 2: THE TWO TERMS OF FLORENTINO PEREZ
In 2006, after Florentino Perez left Real Madrid, Ramon Calderon became Real Madrid president. Ramon Calderon resigned due to financial irregularities and was briefly replaced by Vicente Boluda. Vicente Boluda's unlucky start to his tenure coincided with Barcelona's 6-2 win over Real Madrid. Florentino Perez announced his candidacy for the presidency of Real Madrid in the summer of 2009. Florentino Perez's promise was to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. Florentino Perez was re-elected as president in June 2009.
At that time Lionel Messi and Barcelona were dominating LaLiga and the Champions League and the only solution was to sign Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka. In addition to these two big transfers, Real Madrid added names like Raul Albiol, Xavi Alonso and Alvaro Arbeloa who can play in the team. Of course, they also signed a 22-year-old youngster like Karim Benzema who could serve Real Madrid for many years. In addition to all these transfers, it was necessary to sign a great coach. That name was Jose Mourinho. Mourinho was a very important manager who had won Champions League victories with Porto and Inter before coming to Real Madrid. And Barcelona's three-year dominance is over. Real Madrid became LaLiga champions, breaking LaLiga records for goals and points.
By the summer of 2013, a change of mentality was evident. Real Madrid spent a lot of money that summer, but they signed 5 players, all under the age of 24. As usual, Real Madrid broke another transfer record that summer, paying 101 million euros for the signing of Gareth Bale. The following year, with the addition of James Rodriguez and Toni Kroos, Real Madrid returned to the top under Carlo Ancelotti. Real Madrid won the Champions League for the 10th time in 12 years. This established team continued to win. Under Zinedine Zidane, this team won the Champions League 3 times in a row in 2016, 2017 and 2018, a record that is hard to break.
PART 3: FLORENTINO PEREZ'S NEW REAL MADRID
The summer of 2018 was a very important period for Real Madrid. Cristiano Ronaldo wanted to leave the club. How much influence can a player have on a team, you may ask? But if that player is Ronaldo, it's a lot. Cristiano Ronaldo is a winner, but even if we put that aside, Ronaldo is a player who scores around 45-50 goals for this team every season. Cristiano Ronaldo transferred to Juventus that summer for a 100 million euro transfer fee. This is where the change began. Karim Benzema scored only 5 goals in the league the previous year. Every year there was an ageing midfield trio of Toni Kroos, Luka Modric and Carlos Casemiro and a constantly injured Gareth Bale who thought he was a golf player. It was time to tear down this team and build a new one. But that team had more elite level players. It would have been expensive to completely tear it down and build it up. The right thing was to tear down piece by piece and build piece by piece.
For 45 million euros he signed Vinicius Junior from Flamengo at the age of 17 and his current level is incredible. He bought Thibaut Courtois, who Florentino Perez said was the best in the world, for 35 million euros and sold Keylor Navas for 15 million euros. As a result, he made the goalkeeper 6 years younger. He bought Eder Militao from Porto for 50 million euros and sold Rafael Varane. He brought in elite players like David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger without paying a penny. And finally, he sold Carlos Casemiro for 70 million euros and bought Aurelien Tchouamen for 80 million euros, thus making the team 8 years younger in midfield. Marco Asensio for 4 million euros, Valverde for 5 million euros and Eduardo Camavinga for 32 million euros were the last pieces of the puzzle in those years. With all the good transfers Florentino Perez made, weren't there any bad ones? Yes, there was, he signed Eden Hazard from Chelsea for 115 million euros and sent him on his way without any benefit. But with this squad, they won the Champions League in 2022, beating PSG, Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool.
So far this summer, Real Madrid has made two transfers. Both of these transfers are under the age of 20. Real Madrid has transferred Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund for 103 million euros. This transfer may sound expensive for Real Madrid, but Jude Bellingham was the favorite player of all the important teams during the summer transfer period. There was a football player that Real Madrid has been waiting for for years, this name is Kylian Mbappe. When we said that Real Madrid has started waiting for this transfer, finally, another surprise transfer took place a few days ago. A new football player name Arda Güler, who plays for Fenerbahce in Turkey, has been discovered. Real Madrid and Barcelona competed for this transfer. The winner was Real Madrid. Real Madrid has added Arda Güler to hit squad for a few of 30 million euros.
Currently, the transfer period continues. Real Madrid's only plan seems to wait for Kylian Mbappe. There are some disagreements between PSG and Kylian Mbappe. Kylian Mbappenin's contract expires in the summer of 2024, which seems to come to Real Madrid for free. This transfer is likely to happen this summer. It is not known when it happens, but I think Kylian Mbappe looks like the last part of this change. Will Florentino Perez's change be successful, we will see it in the coming years.
