Why at Real Madrid it often proves a bad move and not a good one
Here’s an analogy for you to mull over:
An entrepreneur, lets call him Phil, comes up with a product. It can be any product: a website, a toaster, a killer ninja battle droid, you name it, but Phil designs and develops it. He makes it successful. It’s him who brings this product to the attention of the world… and it’s a truly great product. Now once this online killer ninja robot toaster is in the public eye, and shown to be a success, a big corporation buys it. It pays off Phil, the entrepreneur, creator and nurturer, and takes the product for itself, selling it under it’s name and reaping the benefits of it’s spin off fluffy toys and lunch boxes. The great product is now owned by the corporation, helping it succeed, which it does.
Who is great in this equation? Phil or the corporation?
I ask you this because this is how I often see Real Madrid. Most people probably casually accept Real Madrid as king of the uber-super clubs, but why? What actual pragmatic reason is there for this lofty assumption? Before you try and figure it out, Phil isn’t supposed to be anyone at all, but I could, feasibly, have given him any number of names, Alex, Carlo, Claude, Jose, Rafa, Gérard, Louis etc but I didn’t want to tie it to one instance. Because there isn’t one instance. Madrid don’t really develop players. They don’t really even develop teams. They let other clubs and other managers do this, and once the player has proved his worth to the world, they buy him, and use him to make themselves more successful. Which often, they do.
Historically of course, Real are undoubtably great. The early teams of the Di Stefano era and the Quinta del Buitre generation of the 80s are both truly great sides. But in the last 25 years what have Madrid achieved, on their own merit, to make them truly great? Because it’s only really in the last 25 years, even the last 10, that this claim has been forcibly made.
I say this because as Real sit second to Barcelona, again, after the staggering events of the summer, we’re still constantly being reminded, by their players and their fans, and casually by writers in both print and up and down the blogosphere, that this is a uniquely special club. The biggest club in football. The greatest club. We were reminded this constantly as they wheeled out star after star in elaborate presentation ceremonies over the summer, but is this true? Where has this idea come from? Sure, they’re certainly the biggest ’show’ in town, but what makes them a great or even legitimately the biggest, club? Surely the five back to back European Cups won during the Franco regime when the competition was in it’s infancy in the 50s can’t be the only reason they’re still revered so highly? No one’s claiming Nottingham Forest are as great or as big as Juventus or Inter despite having the same amount of replica cups in their trophy cabinet. Their recent history has been decent admittedly, with 3 wins since the 60s, but AC Milan have 5 wins since then, with 3 runners up spots and just as many post Champions League re-structing victories. Liverpool have 5 wins too, all since the 70s. Barcelona and Manchester United are viewed, in some quarters, as bigger than either of those foes, yet they both have a paltry 3 in comparison. So it surely can’t be this which makes Madrid so seemingly massive.
The thing that Barca and United hold over their European Cup superiors is the amount of admired quality that has flowed, grown and been moulded through their ranks. The list of genuinely great teams who play genuinely great football is what has swelled their support bases to where they now stand, as unofficially the two most supported clubs on the planet. This doesn’t make them the greatest, but since we can’t be simply using old European Cup victories as our only criteria we’ll have to look at how Madrid fare in this respect. Well, not that well. The list of genuinely quality players who’ve come up through Real’s Castilla or Reserve structures recently isn’t all that impressive: Eto’o, Cambiasso, Raul, Casillas. Only two of them have made their name at the club and the most famous, Raul, is actually a product of the Athletico Madrid youth structure. Guti? Maybe, but not really great. Arbeloa? Hardly. Can we add Rafa Benitez to the list? He’s possibly a great manager? I’m stretching a little though. In fact West Ham have a far better record of producing world class players in the last 25 years than Real Madrid do.
Now youth team product alone isn’t the be all and end all of greatness. Far from it. Many players realize their potential at a club that didn’t nurture them. Fabregas at Arsenal and Ronaldo at Manchester United being two recent examples. So who have Real had who are similar to this? Hierro? Yes. Robinho? Hmmm, not really, but maybe at a push. Higuaín? Getting there, I’ll count him for the moment. Raul could count, but then he’d be exempt from the earlier category. Surely I can think of more than three, possibly four? This is the greatest club in the world isn’t it?
What else increases the greatness of a club? Well there are the players that reach their peak there. One’s whose long journey to greatness is finally realised majestically at the club they become synonymous with. Who’s synonymous with Madrid? Zidane? Probably yes, still debatable though, he was great a Juve. Roberto Carlos? Yes. Fat Ronaldo? No, he was better at Barca. Figo? Same I’d say. Beckham and van Nistelrooy? Both unquestionably better at Manchester United. Robben? Made his name elsewhere, and I’m moving down the food chain too. Di Stefano and Puskás remain the only certainties in this category, even when extending the board to include their whole history. Alfredo was 27 when he went to Madrid, he fits perfectly. But surely they’re not just riding on his coat tails still? Napoli don’t seem to be doing too well in the great club stakes despite being synonymous with Maradona. I wonder how far up the ladder of greatness Stanley Matthews has propelled Stoke and Blackpool?
OK, I’m getting a bit facetious now, it’s obviously a combination of great old names, a few new ones, and generally sustained success. But the point is what then separates Real Madrid so far from the rest? On close inspection they really aren’t that special. If anything far less than other clubs. Few players become great at Madrid, certainly recently. They’re usually great somewhere else first. Real can rarely claim to have produced, made or molded a great player in the last few decades.
When the other still considered ‘great’ clubs of Europe, the Barcas, Milans, Juves, Bayerns, Uniteds and Liverpools buy, they buy to order. More or less. They rarely poach each others players on such a level and for such frivolous purposes and when they do, the move is generally seen as a sideways one rather than a step up, depending on the current fortunes of each club of course. Yet Madrid not only manage to pick and choose from any club, they also manage to convince the players themselves they’re getting a big promotion. That they’re joining the elite, a band only the brightest and the best are permitted entry to.
So when the Ronaldos, Kakas and Benzemas of this world wax lyrical about what an honour it is to follow in the foot steps of the great players and the great teams of yore to have worn the white shirt, who on earth are they talking about? I could reel you off a name of great players to have played for Milan, Barca, Ajax or United equal or longer off the top of my head. As for teams? Again, what teams? The last truly great Madrid team was the aforementioned Quinta del Buitre. The early Raul era and first Galacticos maybe? Meh, maybe, but that Galacticos team was fairly run of the mill big club success wise. They’d peaked by the time Fat Ronaldo arrived and troughed after Beckham did. 1 Champions League and 3 League titles is equal to the Fergie Fledgling United side that preceded it and only just above the Rijkaard Barca team. Liverpool fans will happily tell you how many Leagues and European Cups they won during a much longer period. Any player of peak age or abouts, and around mine in their mid to late twenties, would have grown up with the truly great AC Milan side of Gullit and Van Basten (not to mention Maldini & Baresi) that retained the trophy in 1990, and who’s successors went on to beat the equally great ‘92 Champions, the Barca Dream Team of Romario, Laudrup, and Stoichkov managed by the legendary Johan Cruyff in 1994. They would have witnessed the home grown fluid brilliance of both Alex Ferguson and recently Pep Guardiola’s Treble winners. They would have seen those same teams win the trophy in 2006 & 2008. They would’ve seen Milan win it again, twice. They may have even seen the Arsenal invincibles play a brand of football far and beyond anything Madrid have managed in 50 years. What, Zinedine Zidane’s glorious 2002 final winner aside, would they have seen so strikingly alluring and uniquely special about Madrid? Steve McManaman? Really?
Now I’m clearly exaggerating slightly, I’m not trying to say Madrid aren’t a big club, or even a great one, it’s just that I’m constantly baffled why anyone, let alone professional footballers, are so uniquely attracted to this particular club. Why it’s seemingly held in such high esteem. Everyone has their own definition of what makes the greatest team in the world, and I’m not proposing an alternative myself (I may be mentioning 3 clubs quite prominently, but simply as a comparison to Madrid, not to promote them as the greatest themselves), but there are many different criteria for such an accolade, and yet Madrid come second best, or worse, in all of them bar pre 1960s success. So it seems odd that they’ve managed to build up this illusion, and convince so many people to blindly accept that they are far and away the biggest club in the sport. They have no stability, no real legacy, no desire to do the hard graft, they simply have one, very simple, strategy; “Who’s the best player in the world right now?..Right, lets buy him” Is that truly the mark of greatness? Or the mark of a once great business now woefully short on ideas.
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Real Madrid are the Microsoft of Football.
madrid haven’t “produced” a great player in the last few decades? are you retarded? raul, roberto carlos, redondo, hierro, salgado, michel, butragueno, vazquez, sanchis, gordillo, maceda, camacho, hugo sanchez, valdano, etc. all reached their peak after afew years at madrid.
and, of course, you can add to that all the big names that came to madrid when they were on top of their game (zidane, figo, mijatovic, suker, etc.)
madrid ARE indeed the greatest club ever, just count (if you can) the trophies in all major competitions up through the years.
coming to madrid and wearing the famous white shirt is every players dream. you english suckers just have to deal with that fact.
They make more money than any other club in the world and they use that money to buy players. Because they can buy whomever they want, if they choose you as a player you probably can’t help but feel proud.
Also they play in La Liga, which has always been a top league and very technical, unlike the Premier League and Serie A. A lot of players will choose to play in Spain over England or Italy or another country.
Spot on lads u can’t underestimate Madrid they are the biggest football team the most succsessfull and they have always had super stars get use to it
In the last 50 years AC Milan has won the EC/CL 7 times, Liverpool 5 times, Ajax and Bayern 4 times each, and RM have also won it 4 times. So hpw can they be called the best club in the world?
Incidentally they take the most money because of the way in which the distribution of domestic TV rights favours the big clubs. Once EUFA get their act together and impose a fairer distribution as they did in Italy a few years ago, then RM will b\e seen for what they are – nothing special.
…and furthermore, the money they spend on these players isn’t even their own hard earned. It is rather the gratuity of their local council and banks that bankroll these extravagant purchases with no expectation of these Loans or gifts ever being repaid.
@guti: Did you even finish reading the article? Looks like you didn’t. And why on earth did you list Hugo Sanchez as “produced” by Madrid? Do you know UNAM? Surely the managers who took care of him in Mexico would be ofended by that. He might have reached his peak there, that doesn’t mean Madrid “produced” him.
If international mass support and appeal is the yardstick to greatness, then Real Madrid is no bigger than Stoke City in Asia. Go to China, Korea, Japan, India, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, it would be the ManU, the Liverpools, Ajaxs and Milans.The aura about Real Madrid exists only in Western Europe and no where outside that region. In Africa , no, in North America slightly but perhaps in South America where the Latin influence is strong. Definitely not in Oceania. So it baffling that players like C Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema,
thinks that it is a real big leap upwards.Ignorance ? Nilsteroy, McNanamam, Owen almost become anonymous when they left UK…their global popularity (especially in Asia) takes a knock.
And Asia is the future if global marketing is your intention….CRonaldo change your agent…you can be bigger than you are
Madrid is not great and yet you had all the time in the world to ‘waste’ writing this articles? Wake up my brother, Madrid is the only club in the world with a proven business strategy that has worked over its lfetime. All other keep tinkering with thiers. I hear Arsene ‘the stingy’ Wenger is bemoaning the dearth of world class star. And i used to think he grew them. Now with the cash he made for Arsenal, he still can’t buy good players? Hope you know that the Real Madrid business model has always been in the curricula at Harvard. The fans love the club and more importantly, the players all want to join. Think about that. Just imagine you gettting a call from Florentino Perez that he likes your son to play in the all white; and this story will change!!!
Good article mate.
you actually could have written it about Premier league.
If we start to think about it (take the trophies for an example), how many times has british team won CL over the last 10 years? Ok, now how many times has Barcelona or Milan won it?
It’s nothing else than good adverticement.
I’m not trying to say Madrid are a rubbish club, far from it. Merely that the line they perpetuate, the one that goes
The rest —> Milan, Barca, United etc ———————————> Madrid
Is wrong when you actually think about it
As for their Business model Sam, indeed it is a good one. In fact a friend who lives in spain told me the first thing they ask a new signing is
“Whats it like to sign for the greatest club in the world”
Or akin to that…The player answers, and then you have the idea solidified by great player…and then everyone else toes the line
why only count the last couple of decades when you talk about european success? of course you have to count all the trophies up through the years, not only from a certain year or decadce, and when you do that, the facts ARE: brazil IS the greatest national team and madrid IS the biggest club. period.
as for the business model and cash flow: real madrid not only is the club which makes most money, but they have the almost the whole city of madrid behind them. the citizens, the business section, the banks, the politicians. with that in mind, one must be almost retarded failing to understand how big real madrid is. only barcelona can compare when it comes to support and resources, but they still can’t match the successfull history of real madrid.
and talking about world wide popularity; madrid is undoubtly the most valuable football brand there is. even studies in high prestige univeristies such as harvard came to this conclusion.
so, the cold facts are that madrid is on top, above the other big names such as man u, juventus, milan, bayern, barcelona.
but does this mean that they as of today are the best team? no. will they win major trophies this year? don’t know, probably not. but history have shown that madrid is rightfully the greatest club there is, and they will WILL keep on dominating the game for decades to come. when madrid is beaten badly, as they were last year against barca and liverpool, they ALWAYS come back and be one of the favourites the following year. liverpool beat madrid 5-0 last year, but where are liverpool now? as barca star man said; “you can tear madrid apart, but the next time they face you, they will be favourite to beat you”. none other club can do this kind of comebacks decades after decaeds, which says alot about the power and greatness of real madrid.
Are Uruguay as big a national team as France and Holland? They’ve won more WC’s. Brazil’s statue comes from winning a World Cup in almost every decade. Sustained brilliance. Madrid won the vast majority of their CLs when the competition was in it’s infancy, not as competative, not even competed by clubs in England until 1958 (when the Manchester United team then died, further decreasing Madrids competition for the 3 more they then won)…and then nothing in the intervening years until the late 90s. It’s not the same. Milans record is much more impressive, winning 2 in the 60s, 1 in the 80s, 2 in the 90s and 2 in the 00s…Sustained success, like Brazil.
I’m not sure how Athletico fans would feel about you saying all of Madrid are behind them. And further more what it proves. They are big in Madrid, yes, they are. Boca Juniors are big in Argentina..So?
As for World Wide popularity, I’ve no idea where you’re getting your stats because Manchester United are not only estimated as having the biggest world wide fan base of 330m, but they’ve also just topped the list of most supported clubs, with the highest average attendance in Europe. Madrid are 4th in that list despite having a larger capacity than Untied by 5,000.
http://www.independent.co.uk/sport/football/news-and-comment/manchester-united-top-25-best-supported-clubs-in-europe-1816245.html
Also as for offical fan membership, Benfica are the largest. Not Madrid again. As for worth, well, United again I’m afraid as they’ve topped the Forbes most Valuable Soccer teams list above Madrid.
http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/08/valuable-soccer-teams-business-sportsmoney-soccer-values-09-soccer_land.html
Now, I’m not saying this makes United the biggest, but it’s actual fact that backs up this argument, rather than assumption
Your last point is just vague waffling about how great Madrid are, Where are Liverpool? Erm, well they won the CL more recently than Madrid have, and are waaay above Madrid in the UEFA coefficient rankings.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UEFA_coefficient
As for power and greatness, well many teams have this. Milan, Barca, United etc etc have always had power and greatness…what makes Madrid so much more superior??..Cos most of the things you’ve mentioned aren’t true, as demonstrated. It’s not about proving Madrid aren’t great, just that their greatness isn’t far and away bigger than the other big clubs, if even better at all.
This ‘Real Madrid are the greatest’ thing is a left over from the things that were being said when the galacticos circus was in town. When I was a kid, sure they were recognised as one of the big teams in Europe, along with teams like AC Milan, Bayern Munich, Ajax (absolutely at that time) and of course Manchester United and Liverpool. United and Liverpool were unquestionably the biggest teams ever in any British kids eyes and Liverpool actually lead the follow up to British club’s initial ‘offensive’ on Europe, after the success of Celtic and United. A general air of romance hung over continental sides because it was rare many of us got to see them. Of course we new that Real Madrid were a big side and they had done well in the formative years of the European Cup, but no one took those first 10 years or so really seriously. It wasn’t until the real big teams in Europe, like Manchester United, started to get involved that the competition took on any status or meaning. Let’s also be clear about something. Madrid are a team that have lived off huge debts. They were taken on to try and keep up with the likes of Milan, Juventus, Manchester United and Liverpool. United had three European players of the year in their side when Liverpool’s success story took off. Before thet Ajax had become the ‘biggest’ name in European football with some brilliant sides, and it was they, if any club, that sold the idea of European football to the kids of my generation. We all wanted to be Cruyff or Neeskens. we even bought Ajax shirts as our ’second’ strip in the school yards. I could not have named one player from Real Madrid at that time but we all knew the Ajax side. One last point, until the last couple of years, it has been Manchesyer United who have been the richest club in the world. Madrid went ahead a couple of seasons after the Beckham effect kicked in. But they still were not the most profitable club. That remained United. Then they cooked the books a little in efforts to beat United’s record turnover figures I seem to remember, and finished a few quid ahead. They are way behind in terms of fans and filling stadiums, and if forced to pay off all their debt, would have to come up with a figure I read that stands at over a trillion pounds. I read that a huge number of poeple and organisations will never call in the debts Madrid owe them because they are frightened of the consequences, in both a commercial and physical sense. Anyone insisting on repayment would seemingly face a huge and violent backlash from the public of Spain, and a murkier and very threatning cloud would gather above them from actual steakholders in the club itself…a great organisation of course…more like the Spanish mafia!
While I agree with you to some extent but to say that Real Madrid is not popular outside Western Europe and Latin America just stinks of ignorance. They might not “apparently” have the biggest fan base but they are sure as hell close to it. I have many friends in India and Singapore who constantly talk and talk and talk about Real Madrid, it gives me a headache sometimes and I can’t even bring my team Liverpool into it and I just have to be mean and say 5-0 for them to shut up. Even though I bleed for Liverpool, I would only rate Madrid above us cause of the prestige, history and sheer number of titles over the years.
As for your point about Madrid winning most of their champions league titles in the 50’s, yes, they won 5 and then they won 4 more including 3 in the last decade so you make a very weak argument considering we haven’t won a league title in 21 yrs and only 1 champions league and 1 uefa cup in the last decade. Even AC Milan and Barca only have 2. So I’m sorry but I don’t buy what you’re selling. Every record book you open, whether in Spain or Europe, Real Madrid are always No 1 or there abouts. If money was the only investment needed to buy players then why didn’t Kaka go to Man C? Why did Alonso, Kaka, Benzema and Ronaldo all opt for Madrid? And as for claiming West Ham has produced more talent then lets list them. Rio Ferdinand, Joe cole, Frank Lampard and Jermain Defoe? Are we done? Compared to Casillas, Eto’o, Raul, Guti, Granero, Arbeloa, Negredo, Mata, Hierro, Sanchis, Butrageno, Redondo, Helguera and this is not even counting 20-25 years ago. With Liverpool I wish we had a youth system which produces more than one Stevie G a decade. Barca might be playing the best football right now but with 19 league titles and 3 Chamipons league they are still way behind Real Madrid with 31 and 9. The biggest clubs in the world as it stand right now is 1. Madrid, 2. Milan, 3. Barcelona, 4. Man U. 5. Liverpool, 6. B Munich 7. Inter 8. Chelsea, 9. Arsenal, 10. Juventus. Enough said.
@Mico : Very well said!!!
When there is such a historically successful club like no other, it is obvious there will be morons shouting against us.
“but there are many different criteria for such an accolade, and yet Madrid come second best, or worse, in all of them bar pre 1960s success. ”
Manure comes no where near being Europe’s best except for the feguson era.