Spanish Primera Liga: Sid Lowe on why the last galactico may finally flourish under a new regime as coach Fabio Capello attempts to put David Beckham 'on the right path'.
First it was Luis Figo, departing bitterly to Internazionale. Then Zinedine Zidane, not so much slipping as bulldozing his way into retirement with the most famous headbutt in football history. Now it is Ronaldo, desperately seeking an exit.
Very soon, David Beckham will be the only galactico left at Real Madrid, the last representative of a broken regime. Even the man who bought them all has gone, the emperor who finally realised his nakedness. The club's former president Florentino Perez was eventually forced to accept his proud dream of an all-conquering team had no foundation in reality. Madrid endured three trophyless years for the first time since 1953 and, having ploughed his way through six coaches, four directors of football and €418 million in players, Perez at last sacked the man responsible: himself.
"Perez was the galactico," snapped Figo this week. Now there is a race to undo his costly legacy - and not only in personnel. With Perez' departure comes a shift in mentality, a whole new identity to the Santiago Bernabeu.
An era has passed and only Beckham remains. Raul and Roberto Carlos are still there but neither was a Perez summer signing brought to the capital by private jet and military cavalcade; neither represented galacticism quite like the Englishman. And yet, far from leaving him isolated, far from ushering in an inevitable footballing death, the new Madrid could prove the best thing to happen to Beckham in years.
Beckham desperately needs success. The other galacticos departed under a cloud - Figo angry at club politics, Zidane admitting he should have walked sooner, Ronaldo twice the size - but at least they won something. "Figo's Year" ended with him leading Madrid to the title, Zidane's with the iconic volley that won the Champions League, Ronaldo's with the goals that clinched the league.
That 2003-04 season was "Beckham's Year," its successes forever his. So too - and this was always the risk - its failures. Madrid won nothing then and they have won nothing since, a failure that looks all the more acute now.
Beckham has been dropped from the England squad, the knives have been sharpened, and in pre-season he even lost his place to the Brazilian full back Cicinho. As the last galactico in a new regime, under a new coach trying to impose his vision on the club, his days were surely numbered. Right? Wrong.
Beckham has always been a curious galactico, the embodiment of the policy and yet a rejection of it. He was signed as much for his marketability as his football, the pretty face that contrasted with Ronaldinho - a man deemed "too ugly" to play for Real. His glamour brought screaming girls and huge profits, and his place in the team was protected by presidential decree.
But if the model had been made to measure for Beckham he came to resent it, the promotion of style over substance, the subversion of meritocracy and the collapse of the most basic principles of sporting success an affront to his pride. Time and time again he insisted he "didn't come here to sell shirts".
Actually, he did, but he wished he hadn't. For all his own commercial exploitation, Beckham wanted to earn his place in the side, not be gifted it. And, brought up under Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, he was shocked at the lack of professionalism.
As Beckham saw team-mates who simply did not care, his irritation was palpable. He began taking on the world, chasing and battling. He got dubbed Forrest Gump - a man who runs and runs but to no purpose.
"Beckham was chaotic before," says the new coach Fabio Capello. "Maybe no one had told him where he should move on the pitch. All that's been needed is to put him on the right path."
Ask any Madrid fan and they will tell you Beckham is not like the other galacticos; that he cannot dictate a match, that his passing and control are not slick but that his effort cannot be faulted. Nor can his crossing. If before he ran around like the "headless chicken" that the sports paper Marca denounced, now he has a coach with new ideas - and the authority to impose them.
While Perez dictated team selection, the new president Ramon Calderon has insisted Capello will have a free hand. That may not have augured well but in fact Beckham has been a beneficiary of Capello's arrival. He has returned to the right wing and been told to stay there, to deliver crosses. In the middle, with the signing of Ruud van Nistelrooy, he finally has a team-mate who can head a ball.
"The end for Beckham?" asks Diego Torres of the Spanish daily El Pais, "no chance.
"This year is perfect for him. Capello won't ask him to get to the byline, won't ask him to take anyone on or control the game. He'll just ask him to get the ball, from some way out, and cross it. Nothing else. That's Beckham's game . . . Madrid's new style suits him perfectly."
Van Nistelrooy has been joined by powerful, disciplined footballers in Cannavaro, Emerson and Diarra. But it is not about names; it is about what they represent - about the change of mentality at the club. Capello is different, saying he wanted "11 warriors".
"He's a hard coach - and I like that," said Beckham. The culture of cruising at Madrid has gone, which suits him. He, like Madrid, can concentrate on the football.
Different principles apply now. Galacticism may be dead but Beckham, and Madrid, have a new lease of life.
Guardian Service
