Galácticos
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.
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.
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.
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.
Florentino Pérez was also fond of Francesco Totti, a former 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.
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.
Several reasons have been proposed in the media for the failure of the galáctico policy: The decline in the team's on-field performance had seemingly hit a nadir in the 2005–06 season, crashing out of the Champions League to Arsenal in the Round of 16 without scoring a goal in either leg.
[11] A brief return to form came to an abrupt halt after Madrid lost the first leg of the Copa del Rey semi-finals 6–1 to Real Zaragoza,[12] a defeat that was nearly reversed with a 4–0 home victory.
The incoming transfers were notable in the fact that less media attention or marketing was involved in the signing of these players; Cannavaro had been fresh off captaining Italy to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, but had left Juventus after it was relegated to Serie B, while Van Nistelrooy had fallen out of favour at Manchester United.
The team's performance in the Champions League still disappointed, with their elimination to Bayern Munich on the away goals rule: the team initially enjoyed a 3–2 first leg win at home, but lost the second leg away 2–1, with Roberto Carlos failing to control the ball on kickoff which led to Roy Makaay scoring in 10.12 seconds, the fastest Champions League goal in history.
The nail in the coffin of the end of the first galáctico era is considered to be the departure of Beckham to join Major League Soccer (MLS) side LA Galaxy after the 2006–07 season.
Capello was then replaced by Bernd Schuster, who led the team to the second consecutive La Liga title in 2007–08 and a Supercopa de España at the beginning of the 2008–09 season.
However, Madrid continued to fail in the Champions League, with consecutive round of 16 exits, and couldn't produce stable results on the domestic front either, with multiple early Copa del Rey eliminations and Barcelona regaining dominance in the La Liga.
Several other players are considered to be a part of the galácticos legacy due to their influence on the team during that period despite either being signed previously to Pérez's presidency, being graduates of the Madrid youth system, or being players more focused on defending than attacking; these often include: The 2008–09 season saw Real Madrid eclipsed by rivals Barcelona, who completed their treble, including beating Real to win La Liga by a wide margin of nine points.
In addition, Real Madrid president Ramón Calderón resigned in January 2009 after corruption allegations and having failed to secure notable transfer targets for the club.
Pérez again pledged to go on a spending spree to return the club to European and domestic competitiveness, notably with his vocal claims of an attempt to sign AC Milan's Kaká.
Ending the domestic season, Real Madrid set a club record of 96 points, with 31 wins and 102 goals scored, but nonetheless finished second in La Liga to defending champions Barcelona.
While Real Madrid wanted to make his arrival a media frenzy, Mourinho vetoed the club's plans which supposedly would have involved a giant catwalk or parading a massive white shirt across the pitch.
[20][21] Real Madrid continued the spending spree by signing players Ángel Di María, Sergio Canales, Pedro León, Ricardo Carvalho, Sami Khedira and Mesut Özil.
On 20 April 2011, the second galácticos era managed to win their first trophy, a 1–0 victory over Barcelona in the final of the Copa del Rey, with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring the decisive goal in extra time.
Real finished runners-up to Barça in La Liga, accumulating 85 points, and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League for the third year in a row, where they were eliminated by Borussia Dortmund 3–4 on aggregate.
After the loss to Atlético in the Copa del Rey final, Pérez announced the departure of José Mourinho at the end of the season by "mutual agreement".
The most striking victory came in the 2012–13 Copa del Rey semi-finals where Madrid knocked out defending champions Barcelona 4–2 on aggregate by winning 3–1 at Camp Nou (with two goals from Cristiano Ronaldo) after a 1–1 draw at the Bernabéu.
However, Real Madrid fell short of clinching the trophy, being denied by a man-of-the match performance of goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois, as Atletico scored in extra time to win 2–1.
Mourinho, despite having signed a four-year contract extension in 2012, departed Real Madrid by mutual agreement with the club at the conclusion of the 2012–13 season, amid feuds with key players Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and Pepe.
In the Supercopa de España, against Atlético, Real finished their home leg with 1–1 after goals from James Rodríguez and Raúl García going into the Vicente Calderón Stadium.
[42] On 10 May 2017, an Isco goal was enough for Madrid to reach the Champions League final, despite Atlético winning the second leg 2–1, meaning that Real advanced by an aggregate score of 4–2.
The team was instrumental in ending Barcelona's dominance, despite the Blaugrana boasting arguably the greatest collection of talent in history,[49] and overshadowed the Catalans on the European stage.
[57] Prior to the start of the knockout phase in February 2022, they were again ranked seventh, behind Manchester City, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Chelsea, Paris Saint-Germain and Ajax, in addition to having been considered underdogs to all of the teams they faced thereafter.
