The return of Florentino Pérez as Real Madrid president sees the policy of signing big-name stars, or galacticos, back at the Bernabéu, as Los Blancos look to challenge Barcelona in La Liga and on the European stage.

Last season was Barcelona’s most successful in a long time. Josep Guardiola, in his first year as manager, led the Lionel Messi-led Catalan to success in La Liga, the Champions League and the Spanish National Cup, the first time a Spanish club has won those three trophies in one year.

Perez has reported his intention to challenge Barcelona early on by breaking the world transfer fee record twice. First, Brazilian Kaká was signed by AC Milan for £56m before Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo was bought for £80m. This mirrors Real Madrid’s transfer activity when Pérez first took charge of the club in 2000, when he signed Luis Figo for a record £37m fee before breaking that record the following year when he bought Zinedine Zidane. from Juventus for £46 million.

In addition to Kaká and Ronaldo, Real Madrid have confirmed the signing of Raúl Albiol, central defender from Valencia. In his previous tenure, Pérez was criticized for his buying policy, as he tended to focus too much on attacking players, and indeed the sale of defensive midfielder Claude Makelele to Chelsea is considered by many to be Real Madrid’s downfall after a promising start. to the Pérez presidency.

The 2008-09 season saw Barcelona praised for playing attractive, attacking football and, as well as winning a historic treble, the club beat fierce rivals Real Madrid 2-6 in the El Clásico derby – this is the most goals scored marked by Barça in this match. and the biggest win since the 1970s when Johan Cruyff led Barcelona to a 5-0 win.

Before the start of the season, a motion of no confidence was raised against the club’s president, Joan Laporta, who narrowly survived the attempted dismissal. Driven into action, he made major changes to the player staff and hired former player Guardiola to take over.

This brought great success to the club and many eyes are on the Catalan club to see what their next move is. As of the end of June, they had yet to add journalists to their squad, though they had written about many players taking flights from Barcelona to join the Spanish and European champions as they look to fend off a new challenge from Real Madrid.