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History is a beautiful thing. It can be rewritten a thousand times with the same facts and different perceptions. It is also, as a colleague so aptly put it, not linear, straight or progressive.
This week, the richest and most popular club in football decided to go back and reappoint a manager who resigned less than 10 months ago. Zinedine Zidane is back as Real Madrid manager via one of the most influential and powerful men in Spain, Florentino Pérez.
The club president, almost 10 years into his second stint as head honcho, is not by any means the richest man in the world, with Forbes rating him outside the top 1 000 billionaires. That is not to say that his $2.4 billion (R34.65 billion) net worth is anything to scoff at, and nor should his majority ownership of one of the world’s largest construction companies, ACS Group, be overlooked.
This failed politician has a habit of not succeeding and then coming back to obliterate his opponents.
On the footballing front, in 1995, Pérez – a self-proclaimed lifelong madridista – reckoned his foray into politics was over and decided to become president of Real Madrid. He lost. Five years later – during which time he secured Barcelona’s then captain Luís Figo – he again pitched up for the presidential elections, promised them Figo and unanimously won. Figo was transferred to Madrid for €50 million (R817 million) and the reign of the Galácticos began.
After two years, two league titles and a European title, as well as the signing of Zinedine Zidane and the first Ronaldo, Pérez rose to even more powerful heights.
Then the drought hit.
Beginning in the 2003 season, Madrid failed to win a single major trophy, despite Pérez signing more Galácticos in the mould of David Beckham, Michael Owen and Robinho, while watering the team down with five different coaches in the space of three years.
This eventually culminated in his departure in 2006.
Leading up to his resignation, voices had grown louder and louder about Pérez’s leadership and vision for the club, with questions about his focusing too much on “brand Real Madrid” instead of Madrid’s on-field success.
His continuous sacking of managers, his big money buys and cold attitude towards players did not help his popularity, and, come February 2006 and a week before his resignation, Real’s season was summed up thus: Real sat 10 points behind eternal rivals Barcelona in La Liga after a defeat to a struggling Real Mallorca team, they were knocked out of Copa del Rey in a humiliating 6-1 thrashing by Real Zaragoza and lost 1-0 at home to Arsenal in the Champions League quarterfinal.
Sound familiar?
To be fair to Pérez, this was just the straw that broke the camel’s back as it had sashayed through the desert for the previous two seasons. The business side, however, was flourishing and Madrid had just climbed to the top of world football’s money list after earning €275.7 million in 2005/06, replacing Manchester United for the first time in eight consecutive seasons.
Since then, the royal whites of Madrid have been dislodged only once from the top spot, in the 2015/16 season, as the fiery reds of Manchester, who earned €689 million, reclaimed top spot.
This year, Madrid reclaimed the number one ranking with €750 million – becoming the first team to break that barrier.
But, as this season crumbled two weeks ago when they lost to Barcelona at home twice in the space of four days, the fans called for Pérez to resign. Outside the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, a fan took it upon himself to walk around the stadium screaming at anyone who would listen that Pérez must go.
They had just lost to their eternal rivals twice at home, leading to them being kicked out of the Copa del Rey and leaving them 12 points adrift of the Catalan leaders in the league.
Three days later, those calls for Pérez to leave echoed around a packed Bernabéu as an inexperienced Ajax team humiliated the defending Champions League title holders and knocked them out of the competition.
The pressure mounted, and Pérez was left to scramble and call in all his favours to save his position as the most powerful president in world football.
Enter Zizou. The man who Pérez had built his name on during his first presidency was finally convinced to retake his position as manager.
At his returning press conference, Zidane said his demands were met by the club president and that’s why he returned.
Those demands have not been made public, however, it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to deduce that what Zidane wanted was carte blanche on all footballing decisions and a budget to acquire Galácticos.
Pérez’s new lease of life has already cost the club €50 million as Zidane’s first signing this week was for 21-year-old defender Éder Militão from Porto. This is just the start, as Zidane looks to rebuild and continue his success as a manager at the most prestigious club in Europe.
Pérez, the construction man, had planned to renovate the Bernabéu from as far back as 2011. This looked to be a great legacy on which to end his career.
After all, the most glorified of Real Madrid presidents, Santiago Bernabéu Yeste, as his final act, oversaw the construction of the stadium that was named after him. The perfect way to doff the cap on what would be the most successful period since Yeste’s days.
Alas, since the board approved the €575 million to redevelop the Bernabéu about 10 months ago, no word has been heard on where the money will come from and if it will ever see the light of day.
With income from this year not looking as great due to their terrible on-field performance, the loss of image rights from players such as Christiano Ronaldo and the huge wage bill – the largest in Europe – it’s no surprise that vanity projects will be benched.
What you can be sure of, though, is that the money man, the construction magnate, the most powerful 72-year-old (he celebrated his birthday on March 8 amid the most turbulent period in his presidency) will use all his wiles and guile to ensure his name is etched into the fabric of Real Madrid.
After all, money runs the world. And Real Madrid’s history.
