MADRID (AFP) - Former Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, set automatically to take charge of the club again on June 1, has promised to deliver fans the beautiful game as they try to move beyond Barcelona's year of hegemony.
Barca won the Champions League, the Spanish title and the Spanish Cup in a superb season under debutant coach Pep Guardiola and Real were left looking ordinary by comparison.
view photoPerez said the team he would help to build would be world beaters.
"We will build a spectacular team with top notch players," Perez told a gathering of Real stakeholders and reporters Thursday.
"We have set up a strong and stable sporting project which will be able to call upon footballers who will turn each Real Madrid match into a fascinating rendez-vous," vowed Perez, the architect of the multimillion-dollar era of 'galacticos', global stars such as Ronaldo, Zinedine Zidane and David Beckham.
The recipe worked for a while and a ninth European Cup duly arrived in 2002 but, aside from a 2007 league title for Beckham's only trophy and a Liga repeat last year Real have seen the pendulum swing spectacularly towards Barcelona this season.
AFP/view photoAnd in the past seven seasons which have elapsed since Zidane's brilliant winner in the 2002 final, the club have performed woefully in the Champions League ever since.
Perez did not mention any names regarding new top signings but the usually well-informed Cadena Ser radio said Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, currently at Villarreal, would become coach in place of stop-gap Juande Ramos, who replaced the sacked Bernd Schuster mid-season.
And reports Thursday said that the club would also land AC Milan's Brazilian playmaker Kaka.
Media reports constantly speculate that Cristiano Ronaldo, Liverpool's Spanish star Xabi Alonso and Bayern Munich's French star Franck Ribery will don the all-white strip next term.
Pulling strings as top advisors will be Argentine Jorge Valdano, long ensconced in the club's corridors of power, as well as Zidane.
Perez is set to return as chairman as the only other candidate still in the race for the job will not qualify to run, sports daily AS reported on Tuesday.
Little-known Eduardo Garcia will be unable to lodge a bank guarantee of 57.4 million euros with the club which is needed to be able to run for president by a May 31 deadline, the newspaper said.
The only other candidate who had announced his intention to run, former Real vice-president Juan Onieva, withdrew his candidadacy over the weekend.
According to the club's rules, if there is only one candidate for president, Perez will be appointed to the post on Monday, otherwise a vote will be held on June 14.
While the club normally holds elections every four years, it faces the prospect of holding a ballot a year early due to the resignation of former president Ramon Calderon in January.
That folowed allegations he rigged voting at the club's last general assembly in December, which approved its financial accounts.
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@ 10 Ronaldinho said it rains too much in manchester dats why he didn't sign for United not that fergie couldn't pay the money.
Campiones...campiones...olé...olé...olé !!
Number 8, Most of Man Utd's influential players are not even home grown. Not in recent years at least. Probably Ronaldo, because you bought him at 18. Rooney? No young player costs 27 million pounds. Destabilize other players? HA! What did you guys do with Berbatov? Nani? Rooney? Hargreaves? Ferdinand? And the list goes on. If I'm not mistaken, these players were not for sale until you offered ridiculous amount of money! And Ferguson is an idiot. He knows nothing about the Spanish history and suddenly he brings up Franco. It's like mentioning Hitler to the Jews. The only people that would actually support Ferguson is the idiotic Man utd glory hunter fans, which im sure half of them support Barcelona now
The greatest blunder Perez made during his last tenure was in not signing Ronaldinho. It is a known fact that Ronaldinho wanted to play for either Real Madrid or Manchester United. This sod Perez said, 'Ronaldinho is too ugly to fit in our team, which has the handsome Figo, Beckham, Zidane etc.' Then, poor Ronaldinho turned to Man U with hope but Sir Alex made couldn’t recognize his immense talent and refused to pay the extra million of cash that Paris Saint Germain asked. We were lucky to sign Ronaldinho and look what he did at Barcelona and what he became. Hence, Perez has come back , so let us wait and see what new blunders he will make.
The greatest blunder Perez made during his last tenure was in not signing Ronaldinho. It is a known fact that Ronaldinho wanted to play for either Real Madrid or Manchester United. This sod Perez said, 'Ronaldinho is too ugly to fit in our team, which has the handsome Figo, Beckham, Zidane etc.' Then, poor Ronaldinho turned to Man U with hope but Sir Alex made couldn’t recognize his immense talent and refused to pay the extra million of cash that Paris Saint Germain asked. We were lucky to sign Ronaldinho and look what he did at Barcelona and what he became. Hence, Perez has come back , so let us wait and see what new blunders he will make..
Facist from the FRANCO era. This man is a disgrace. Kaka, Ronaldo, Ribery, Cesc. He doesn't care about the players. It's all about his image. Look how he treated Ronaldo, Figo, Beckham, Makelele, Helguirra. He can't develop any decent players of his own so he has go to and distabalise other clubs top players. Ferguson is a legend for telling Madrid where to go last season. Good on him. He is one of the few Managers that has any backbone to stand up to this dictator!
some idiot who don know next to nothing, don waste ur f*** time by giving false comments....
Schuster was sacked after he said madrid has no chance beating barca in december.....
N for record barca bravo...u prove all stupid english fans that spain n italy is the best in CL....
some idiot who don know next to nothing, don waste ur f*** time by giving false comments....
Schuster was sacked after he said madrid has no chance beating barca in december.....
N for record barca bravo...u prove all stupid english fans that spain n italy is the best in CL....
alextheodossiadis
Real Madrid and Florentino have very valid historical precedents to make those claims. No team in England does. I hope this new Madrid meets up with Fergie's F*ag*s next year... Its been too long since I've seen ManUre raped by Madrid... although I did see them get violated by Barcelona the other night. La Liga is the best, you know it.
This guy just gets more delirious buy the week.
Some of his claims - He will create the best team in the world (good joke)
- He will attract the best players in the world (funny guy)
- They are the best team in Spain and Europe (in his dreams)
and so the list goes on, when will he realise that he is omly making Madrid worse than they already are?
What an IDIOT he is !! Better if he develops home groomed local players than spending and indebting such a historic club now tainted by too many useless expensive 'galacticos' and trophyless seasons.
Inept if he thinks star players win trophies alone. Only team spirit does like Man Untd Chealsea and Barca.
He was sacked.
"Who replaced the sacked Bernd Schuster mid-season."
Schuster resigned because he felt he couldn't take the clubany further, he wasnt sacked :S
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