"I have not known how to guide them." That was Florentino Pérez's verdict on his own presidency — delivered on February 27, 2006, in one of the most self-lacerating exit speeches modern football has ever produced.
He didn't wait for the second leg against Arsenal to play out. Thierry Henry had already silenced the Bernabéu with a 1-0 win in the first leg, then came a 2-1 defeat away to Mallorca, and that was enough. Pérez had seen what he needed to see. He was gone.
A dressing room that had already broken apart
The Mallorca loss wasn't just a bad result. It was a window into how completely the squad had fractured. When a young Sergio Ramos scored, his teammates barely reacted — and Ramos called it out publicly on Cadena SER.
"When I scored, it felt like Mallorca had scored instead of me. Unity makes you stronger, and that is something that really matters."
Pérez used that exact moment in his farewell address to illustrate his broader point: he had spent years telling these players they were the best in the world, and somewhere along the way, they believed it in all the wrong ways. "After telling them so many times they were the best in the world, they ended up confused," he admitted.
He went further. He described an egocentric, selfish mentality in the squad. He acknowledged making too many commitments to players during contract renewals — commitments, he suggested, that left him boxed in. "Others who come after me will have freer hands," he said.
A club in financial health, sporting freefall
The paradox of that Galácticos era is stark in hindsight. Deloitte named Real Madrid the richest club in the world in 2006. Yet between 2003 and 2006, the only silverware they collected was a Spanish Super Cup. Three seasons effectively empty at a club built for trophies.
The coaching carousel alone tells the story: Del Bosque out, then Queiroz, Camacho, García Remón, Luxemburgo, López Caro — five different managers in roughly three years. Arrigo Sacchi came in as sporting director, Jorge Valdano left. Nothing stuck.
On the European stage, the exit against Arsenal completed the humiliation. The second leg at Highbury ended 0-0 — Real had their chances, Raúl hit the post, Jens Lehmann made a brilliant save — but Arsenal held on. Zidane never played in European competition again after that night. He retired that summer.
Pérez proposed Fernando Martín as interim president. Martín lasted weeks before resigning himself. Eventually Ramón Calderón won the subsequent election with just 29.81% of the vote — a number that captures exactly how divided and exhausted the club's fanbase had become.
"The club needed a change, a shake-up, a new impulse," Pérez said on his way out. "I am a blockage that needed to be removed."
He wasn't wrong. He'd just taken six years and a lot of expensive mistakes to figure it out.
