Roberto Carlos and the era of “Galácticos”

In 1996 after a short and disappointing spell at Inter Milan, the left-back who had shone at Palmeiras Roberto arrives to sign a contract with Real Madrid. Almost immediately, Roberto Carlos conquers the Madrid fans with his climbs to the attack and shots from outside the area. In addition, in three years with the club, the Brazilian has won the title that has been the club's obsession for over 30 years, the Champions League. As the years went by and the Brazilian became more and more established in the team, a presidential dispute was taking place behind the scenes that would greatly affect the direction of the club. In 1995, Lorenzo Sanz took over the presidency of Real with a mission of recovery as finances and football of the club, after Ramón Mendoza was forced to resign for the bad course that took one of the biggest clubs in the world. Despite the gigantic debt the club held, Sanz decided to invest out of his own pocket to bring in star players like Suker and Mijatovic, as well as others without so much international renown as Roberto Carlos himself. The signings had an effect and Real managed to win the Champions League twice in their term, 1997/1998 and 1999/2000 Days after the conquest of the second Champions there was the election for the presidency, in which Sanz tried to reelection very confident for the two European titles won. However, the titles were not enough to mask the continued financial management that remained in the club and the one elected this time was Florentino Pérez, who had focused his entire campaign on financial problems and the promise to remove Luís Figo from Barcelona. With Florentino Pérez taking over the club and signing Figo, the “Galácticos” period begins at Real Madrid. The coach was still Vicente Del Bosque, who had won the last Champions League for the team and each year a star was hired by Real. The club already had Raúl, Roberto Carlos, Casillas and in 2001 hired midfielder Zinedine Zidane for 75 million euros, in what would be the most expensive contract in football history for many years. In the first year of Zidane, Real won another Champions League with two assists by Roberto Carlos, the second of them for a great goal from the Frenchman, confirming the title to the meringues. In the following years, Florentino Pérez maintained his policy, hiring one star a year, with the arrival of Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004, Robinho, Júlio Baptista and Sérgio Ramos in 2005 and closing with Antonio Cassano in 2006 Even with this team full of stars, Real Madrid can go 3 years without a title. At the end of the 2002/2003 season, the president decides not to renew coach Vicente del Bosque's contract. After that Real went through 6 coaches in 4 years with just two titles. The last of them was the Italian Fabio Capello who closes the Galactic era with the Spanish championship title. In these years of fasting for the club in the Spanish capital, Barcelona led by Ronaldinho takes center stage in Spain and Europe with two La Liga titles and one Champions League title. The era of galactics, instead of being marked by the club showing great football with the show of international stars, was with the demonstration of how important it is to manage egos in a football club and that mainly, that money invested does not win matches and championships.