Ronaldo becomes a Galactico – La Liga in 2002-03

Under the presidency of Florentino Perez before the 2002-03 season, Real Madrid broke the world transfer record to sign Luis Figo from Barcelona and Zinedine Zidane from Juventus.

For Perez, however, there was one ‘Galactico’ centre-forward missing from the puzzle to partner Raul, and he identified ‘O Fenomeno’ Ronaldo as his latest big-money signing. As well as collecting the signature of a former Ballon d’Or winner, Perez would put one over on Barcelona by signing one of their former greats.

Valencia were aiming to retain their championship after winning their first title in 31 years the previous campaign.

CHANGES

Los Blancos had signed the mercurial talents of Zidane one year previous, and although this paid off via a Champions League triumph, they lost out in the league to Rafa Benitez’s Valencia. In line with his ‘Galactico’ transfer policy, Perez signed former PSV, Barcelona, and Inter sensation Ronaldo, fresh off a World Cup win with Brazil in the summer of 2002, for a fee of €45 million. He would be the only major acquisition for Madrid in that pre-season.

In a bid to get Barca challenging for the league again like they had did just a few seasons ago, they brought back Louis van Gaal, but the Dutchman’s midas touch was not the same and he eventually lost his job in January. Two replacements followed in the form of Antonio de la Cruz and Radomir Antic, but neither performed much better. Van Gaal, in his only transfer window, brought in Juan Roman Riquelme from Boca Juniors and Gaizka Mendieta on loan from Valencia.

Defending champions Valencia failed to build on their playing squad from the previous campaign and only signed the likes of Jean Dorothee and Anthony Reveillere on free transfers.

The surprising big spenders were Deportivo, who signed Albert Luque, Jorge Andrade, and Robert Acuna for fees which totalled up to over 37 million euros.

Sevilla, meanwhile, picked up a little-known young Brazilian full-back by the name of Dani…
Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/season-reviews/ronaldo-becomes-a-galactico-la-liga-in-2002-03/82

Author : [email protected] (Martin Macdonald)

Publish date : 2024-07-24 11:00:00

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