Florentino Pérez

Florentino Pérez (born March 8, 1947 in Madrid, Spain) is a Spanish business man, former politician, and former President of Real Madrid of the Spanish La Liga and current president of ACS. He is most famous for ushering in the club's period of Los Galácticos.

Florentino Pérez joined the Democratic Center Union party in 1979, serving among other in the city council of Madrid.

In 1986 Florentino Pérez ran in the Spanish general elections as candidate for the Partido Reformista Democrático.

In 1993 he was named president of "OCP Construcciones SA". After the fusion of "OCP" with "Gines y Navarro" into Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (ACS) in 1997 he became president of the new company.

Pérez first tried for the presidency of Real Madrid in 1995. He denounced the poor financial situation of the club and the alleged mismanagement by the board extensively, but lost to the incumbent Ramón Mendoza by 700 votes.

His second attempt was more successful when he took over as president in 2000 beating the current chairman at that time Lorenzo Sanz. Sanz assumed that the recently won European Cups in 1998 and 2000 would give him enough credit to win the elections, but Pérez's campaign, higlighting the financial problems of the club and claims of mismanagement by the previous boards, proved otherwise. Pérez's promise to bring in Luís Figo from archrivals Barcelona also played a decisive role in the elections. Florentino Pérez was reelected in 2004 with 94,2% of the total votes.

Luís Figo also marked the start of Pérez's policy to bring one of the best football players in the world to Real Madrid each season. The strategy was initially known as "Zidanes y Pavones" but the players were soon popularly referred to as Galácticos. In 2001 Zinedine Zidane came over from Juventus for a record transfer fee. He was followed by Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004 and Robinho in 2005. Initially, Perez's policy worked to great success, because each 'Galactico' built their squads around the player, and had a more proper team balance of attack and defense. In his first years in office Real Madrid won two Spanish Championships and its record ninth European Cup.

Florentino Pérez claimed success in clearing the club's debt, however this was contradicted by director Ramón Calderón.

After the 2002-2003 season, Perez fired coach Vicente Del Bosque despite Real capturing a 29th La Liga title. Del Bosque was able to balance the many different modern player egos in the star studded team. It was widely believed that there was a political split, with Del Bosque and his players (Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman and Claude Makélélé) on one side, and Perez on the other. All of the aforementioned players left the club in 2003 in Perez's shakeup bid to regain control.

In particular, Claude Makélélé, one of the best defensive midfielders and a key component to Real's successes, decided to ask for an improved contract with the support of team-mates Zidane, Raúl, McManaman and Fernando Morientes. Up to this time, Makélélé was also one of Real Madrid's most under-paid members, earning a fraction of what was paid to the Galácticos, but Perez flatly refused to consider Makélélé's request. Upset, Makélélé handed in a transfer request, whereupon he was promptly dispatched to Chelsea. Pérez infamously poured scorn on Makélélé's footballing abilities and proclaimed that Makélélé would not be missed, saying: "We will not miss Makélélé. 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."

After Makélélé was sold, Perez signed a number of high-profile attackers, including Michael Owen, Júlio Baptista, and Robinho, in accordance with his "Galacticos" policy. Unfortunately, all of the 'galaticos' were attacking players, with generally limited defensive roles and abilities, and Perez failed to adequately replace Makélélé in the holding midfielder's role. Negotiations to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal in 2004 failed because of Perez's refusal to pay high wages for "defensive players".

Several years after leaving Real, McManaman and Morientes stated that Makélélé was the most important and least appreciated midfielder, the latter saying "The loss of Makélélé was the beginning of the end for Los Galácticos... You can see that it was also the beginning of a new dawn for Chelsea." From the 2003-2004 season onward, with the absence of Del Bosque and Makélélé, Real Madrid failed to win a trophy.

Though Perez's policy resulted in increased financial success based on the exploitation of the club's high marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia, it came under increasing criticism for being focused too much on marketing the Real Madrid brand and not enough on the football.

He resigned on February 27, 2006, acknowledging that the team and the club as a whole needed a new direction.