It was in July 2000. A successful construction businessman named Florentino Pérez was elected president of Real Madrid for the first time. Shortly after taking office, he met with Vicente Del Bosque, then first team coach, to outline possible reinforcements for the 2000-2001 season.
They considered several names, Del Bosque insistently asked Flávio Conceição, a discreet Brazilian midfielder for Deportivo La Coruña. Florentino did not like him very much and he began to slip some objections. “Do you think…?” Del Bosque: “Yes, yes…” Florentino did not finish swallowing the pill, but Vicente stood firm: “I love him”.
“Are you sure…?” asked the new president.
-Completely.
(Also read: New failure for Messi, Neymar and Mbappé in the Champions League)
Well, like a good leader, he supported his coach’s request and started talks with his Depor peers. They asked him for a silver: 4,000 million pesetas, currency still in circulation. It was equivalent to about 25 million euros, crazy for the time for a branded steering wheel. Florentino gave a start. Between the fact that he was not convinced by Conceição and the fortune it cost, it hurt him to do the operation. But he talked to Del Bosque and he was more convinced each time. Finally the signing was completed: 4,000 million pesetas and 5,000 million plus the player’s contract.
In September the championship began, Madrid did not look good and Del Bosque did not line up the Brazilian. Florentino went to training and, in the middle of the field, talked with the coach. The question fell out of maturity:
-And why doesn’t Conceição play…?
“I don’t see him,” replied good old Vicente with a disapproving grimace.
Florentino didn’t say a word. “You make me spend nine thousand million pesetas and you don’t see him…?” He thought. He went up to his office and, talking with his trusted people, he declared: “From now on I file.” And 23 years later, she’s still doing it.
Florentino Pérez’s model with Real Madrid
He dismantled the sports management (possibly it is the only club, among the first five hundred in Europe, without a technical secretary or sports director). It wasn’t so bad for him: he has won 31 titles, including 6 European Cups. And he has some notable personal successes like that of Benzemá. They tell it at the Bernabéu: “Florentino was at home watching a Lyon game, he saw it there and was dazzled. He said: this one must be brought ”. And he took it for 35 million, a modest figure compared to that of other transfers and, above all, with his enormous performance. He hired Sergio Ramos from Sevilla, Modric from Tottenham, Courtois from Chelsea, Casemiro for 5 million from São Paulo FC, Valverde for the same value as Peñarol, Vinicius, Rodrygo, and twenty more bombs. He also messed up with Hazard and some others, but in general he is a fantastic sniper, where he aims…
Flávio Conceição did not perform well, he played little and, as soon as they could, they placed him on loan until his contract expired. The president does not give the handle of the frying pan to anyone. This is how he has made Madrid the most winning club on earth.
The contrast with PSG: millions badly invested
It is unthinkable that, without knowing it, Florentino would approve 187 million euros for Luis Campos to spend at will on players with no proven performance. It is what he has done paris saint germain with its Portuguese sports director. He arrived in June and gave him free rein. And Campos hired Vitinha (€41.5 M), Ekitike (loan with mandatory purchase option for €39 M), Nuno Mendes (he was at PSG on loan and his €38 M option was approved), Fabián Ruiz (23 €M), Carlos Soler (€18M), Renato Sanches (€15M), Mukiele (€12M). They are the seven reinforcements that Campos recommended to win the Champions League. None stood out in their club and none has performed even minimally to satisfaction, so the discontent with Campos is monumental. Renato Sánches comes from failing in several teams and was not called up by Portugal for the recent World Cup. Christophe Galtier hardly takes it into account. Soler has not caught on at all, Nuno Mendes has serious brand errors… But the worst case is Ekitike, with a very low performance and for whom they will have to pay 39 million at the end of the season. They don’t know what to do with it. Jean-Pierre Caillot, president of Stade Reims, who transferred him, came out in defense of the striker: “We haven’t cheated PSG, Ekitike is going to be a great player.” The unusual thing is that Luis Campos fulfills the same function simultaneously in two clubs: he also recruits the players for Celta de Vigo, twelfth in the Spanish league, three points from the relegation zone.
PSG was eliminated from the Champions League by Bayern Munich without showing game or character. And he was dropped from the French Cup by Olympique de Marseille. He only has the League left, in which he still has a good advantage over the Marseillaise team, but he is supported almost exclusively by the 44 goals and 27 assists combined by Mbappé, Neymar and Messi. The rest of the team is not at the same height. With what he has, he just gives him a league.
PSG is a rich club with a poor team. This, because of his customary bad signings. Now Galtier is on the precipice, but he is an excellent coach, his mistake was approving Campos’s purchases. The name of Zidane sounds to replace him, although Zinedine would have put as a condition that the controversial Campos walk away, who in the game against Lille, three weeks ago, seeing that the team was a tear, came down from the box out of his mind and put on to give directions at the edge of the playing field, ridiculing Galtier.
“History won millions”, headlined in Europe about Bayern’s triumph over PSG. Mistake. Bayern also spent 145 million on signings. In Europe there are ten or twelve clubs that spend that money in each market. And some, like Chelsea, more. The difference is that they spend well. Bayern hired, among others, two consecrated: Sadio Mané and Matthijs de Ligt. In January, due to the injury of Mahuel Neuer (he had a skiing accident), they urgently brought in the excellent goalkeeper of the Swiss team Yann Sommer for barely 8 million. Impossible to choose a better replacement. Like Florentino, neither would Rummennigge or Uli Hoeness, who have fought a lifetime to make Bayern the best governed club in the world, give Campos a license to throw 187 million down the drain to weaken the team. Those things don’t happen there. When the Bosnian-German Hasan Salihamidžić (sports director) appears before the board of Bayern Munich AG, a public limited company made up of the club (75.01% of the share package), Audi (8.33), Adidas (8.33) and Allianz (8.33) must explain in detail who they plan to bring, why, the background, show videos, everything.
If Bayern needs a goalkeeper, they bring Neuer, from Schalke, the best in the world for ten years in a row; when he needs a scorer, he signs Lewandowski, and if Lewandowski leaves, Mané arrives. If Lahm retires, Kimmich comes from Leipzig, the best German footballer in recent years. And if a creative is needed, go for Ribery. When looking for a tip, he takes Robben. He wants an 8 and signs Goretzka. He goes to the side and secures Davies, a chainsaw. Everything is like this. History has nothing to do with it, intelligence wins, knowledge of football.
In the past, when the championships in Argentina ran from March to December, there was a phrase that summed up the importance of the transfer book: “In March, the champion wins, not in December.”
last tango…
Jorge Barraza
For the time
@JorgeBarrazaOK
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