The dark side of “Los Blancos”

There was a time when I truly idolized Real Madrid, after all, they are one of the top clubs in the world. They are surrounded by the best players, sponsors and managed to be the first club to set a fan base worldwide. In recent years a new wave of players has set the standard for the “merenges” in terms of quality. It’s precisely the treatment that they have of some of their players that I don’t agree with, but I’ll leave that for the end. Let me begin by saying why I can’t completely dislike Real Madrid, that way I don’t sound too harsh in the end.

I was about 8 years old when I got a hold of European football. It was a regular weekend and a commercial came on. It was none other than Real Madrid’s summer tour in Asia, at the time I had just learned about players like Zidane, Beckham or Figo so what came next was unexpected. When they said they were going to televise some of the games I knew I couldn’t miss it.Since that happened a long time ago all I remember now was my disbelief when I saw the lineup in a game. It was more than a grateful surprise when I saw that my idol took part of that amazing team, none other than Ronaldo Nazario. “Los Galacticos” as they were known had a team full of stars, such as Guti, Heinze, Robinho, Roberto Carlos, Ronaldo, Beckham, Zidane, Raul, Sergio Ramos, Michael Owen and Iker Casillas (no I didn’t use google). I must say that it was a team worth watching, but sadly I didn’t have the opportunity to see that as much as I would’ve liked due to the lack of coverage from the media in Ecuador.

 

Those were the good days, sadly I got to see the ugly side of Madrid when it got rid of Ronaldo.The excused they used? His weight problems affected his performances and it wasn’t a good image for the club. Ironically that same summer of 06 he would go on and break records with the Brazilian team. It would take a few years for me to find out that Arjen Robben and Sneider left the club under the same issue, both of them would become decisive players after they left. I guess it’s all about the money for them but shortly after their tactics would become uglier when Florentino Perez was elected president again. It was the arrival of the new Galacticos as they brought in Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka to begin the new plan. If before they used fitness and image to drop players they didn’t want, now all it takes is one word from a certain person to make the decisions.

The team now runs under the orders of Cristiano Ronaldo and Florentino Perez I say this because most of the players that have arrived and left were victims of their decisions. The first player to have been destroyed was Kaka, who came from Milan at his best form but was used in reserve games and was never given the opportunity to display his true potential. In the end, he left back to Milan on a free transfer with a destroyed reputation, his replacement? Gareth Bale a player that was too expensive and has spent most of the season injured. He also became the reason of departures from players like Callejon, Higuain, and Morata (the first time). There was no space for any other player if it meant that the players that were popular would be on the bench. The concept that would cause the departure of Ozil and Di maria as they made way for Kross, Modric and James Rodriguez. I was a witness to this transition but the way they handled the situation with Casillas and Raul have upset me the most, we can add James and Keylor Navas now that the summer is approaching. Players like Raul and Casillas were poorly treated after they saw their time in Madrid come to and end the worst way possible. The first one was forced to leave the club after Cristiano arrived, during his first season he saw most of the games from the bench since Florentino didn’t want his most expensive player on the sidelines. Raul ended up leaving the number 7 to the Portuguese finishing his extensive career in Madrid in the most humiliating way. Something similar happened to Iker Casillas after an injury saw him miss half a season, Diego Lopez would substitute him but it didn’t end there. The following season the Goalkeeper in demand was David De Gea and Florentino wanted him at all costs.
This meant that newly arrived Keylor Navas would serve as an exchange for De Gea leaving no space for Casillas in the team. The operation would take place during the January transfer window, it would make Iker announce his departure in a press conference. The irony struck again as the operation would fail, making Real Madrid look as the worst club ever because of how Casillas left the club that he proudly represented for almost a decade.

The season is concluding and a new departure might take place. James Rodriguez the Colombian player that Real Madrid bought after his excellent display in the world cup could be packing his bags after 3 seasons of false promises. It’s not clear as to why he hasn’t been given a chance after Bale has been out ALL SEASON but it all points out that he was never one of the favorites for Ronaldo or his coach Zidane. In the end, it was all marketing purposes just like for Kaka, they never really cared for the quality but for the quantity in profits. Keylor Navas seems to be playing his last games in Madrid after De Gea has agreed to sign for Madrid, sad situation given that Keylor Navas has saved Madrid from humiliating defeats but I guess that doesn’t count for Real Madrid. The question that I want to finish is the following; Why buy a good quality player if your intentions are to destroy his career? Hard to understand but I guess the cycle will continue.