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Galácticos (Spanish for galactics) are expensive, world-famous Real Madrid football players recruited during the "galácticos" policy pursued during Florentino Pérez's presidency at Real Madrid, where in his first tenure he purchased at least one galáctico in the summer of every year.

The term itself carries both positive and negative meanings. Initially, it was used to emphasise the greatness of signing superstar players and the construction of a world class team. Later the term attracted a more negative connotation; galáctico becoming synonymous with prima donna and used to deride the transfer policy and side (or team) built under it, following media perception that the policy at Real and Barcelona had failed to deliver expected levels of success.

The term has occasionally been used to describe other teams, both in football and in other sports, that have been perceived to follow a similar policy. For example, British rugby union commentator Martin Gillingham called French club Toulon a "band of galácticos" in 2012 due to a wave of signings of international stars by owner Mourad Boudjellal.^[1]

Origins

Although the term was widely used in the 2000s, the origins of the Galáctico policy date as far back as the 1950s when the architect of the policy, President Santiago Bernabéu Yeste after whom the club stadium is named, signed star players the likes of Alfredo Di Stéfano, Ferenc Puskás, Raymond Kopa, Jose Santamaria and Francisco Gento in succession, to achieve Real Madrid's finest era of dominance.

In the culture of Real Madrid, the Galácticos period is often contrasted with the Quinta del Buitre era of the late 1980s. The Quinta del Buitre played a more physical and less appealing style of football and were made up of homegrown players, unlike the foreign stars who became the Galácticos.

The first galáctico era is considered to be synonymous with the presidency of Florentino Perez between 2000–2007, or from Real Madrid's signing of Luís Figo during summer 2000 to the departure of David Beckham during summer 2007. The Florentino Pérez era brought:

The galácticos

Luis Figo (£38.7 million from Barcelona) - joined in 2000, left in 2005 for Inter Milan
Zinedine Zidane (£46 million from Juventus) - joined in 2001, retired in 2006
Ronaldo (£30 million from Inter Milan) - joined in 2002, left in 2007 for AC Milan
David Beckham (£25 million from Manchester United) - joined in 2003, left in 2007 for LA Galaxy

In addition, English striker Michael Owen is often considered to be galáctico, Florentine Perez had stated his desire to make Owen part of his galáctico project as early as March 2002.^[2] Owen eventually joined the club for £8 million plus Antonio Núñez from Liverpool in August 2004 and he was given the number 11 shirt.^[3] Owen's transfer fee was not as large as the other Galácticos, however this was attributable to Owen being in the last year of his contract at Liverpool^[3] and Núñez being sent to Liverpool in part exchange. Although Owen would mostly feature as a substitute, he had the highest goals to minutes played ratio in the Spanish league during his time in Madrid.