6 biggest mistakes of Florentino Perez's presidential career at Real Madrid

#4 Selling Makelele

Back in the first Galáctico era at the Bernabéu, Claude Makelele was a crucial player in the Los Blancos’ lineup. Since moving there from Celta Vigo, he had blossomed into one of the best defensive midfielders in the world. But despite that he was underpaid, earning only a fraction of what the likes of Zidane, Beckham, Figo and Ronaldo did. One report suggested that Becks earned five times Makelele’s salary. Egged on by his teammates, Makelele approached Perez for a pay rise. Perez refused and Makelele was on his way out.

We will not miss Makélelé. His technique is average, he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and ninety percent of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways. He wasn’t a header of the ball and he rarely passed the ball more than three metres. Younger players will arrive who will cause Makélelé to be forgotten.

- Florentino Perez

History is witness to the fact that for the next 4 years, Los Galacticos huffed and puffed but failed to win a trophy. Meanwhile, Makelele became the anchorman as Chelsea started filling their trophy cabinet. The younger players Perez had predicted would replace him never came. The enormity of Makelele’s departure and the void he left was perfectly summed up by ex-Real captain Hierro as follows:

“I think Claude has this kind of gift – he’s been the best player in the team for years but people just don’t notice him, don’t notice what he does. But you ask anyone at Real Madrid during the years we were talking about and they will tell you he was the best player at Real. We all knew, the players all knew he was the most important. The loss of Makélelé was the beginning of the end for Los Galacticos… You can see that it was also the beginning of a new dawn for Chelsea. He was the base, the key and I think he is the same to Chelsea now. “