July 13, (THEWILL) – Revelations from a leaked audio dating back to 2006 have uncovered the perception of Real Madrid’s President Florentino Perez about a pair of Real icons, Iker Casillas and Raul Gonzalez, at the time and the words attributed to the President were not appealing.
In the 2006 recording, Perez could be heard venting his dissatisfaction about the duo with words that he will not want relayed in public due to the weight of the implications but it was obvious that he was unimpressed by both and believed them to be overrated.
The publication of his remarks by El Confidencial had Perez saying: “Casillas is not a Real Madrid standard goalkeeper, what can I say? He’s not and never has been. He has been a big failure of ours. The problem is people adore him, love him, talk to him, they defend him so much.
“He is one of the biggest frauds and the other is Raul, the two biggest Real Madrid frauds are first Raul and second Casillas.”
Although Perez appeared to single out these two big influential players at the time at Madrid, his dismal view of the team as a whole was quite evident in the same recording as published. He cut through the team saying: “The players are very selfish; you can’t count on them for anything. If you do, you’ve made a mistake and they’ll let you down, it’s ridiculous.
“I have an awful view of the players.”
THEWILL recalls that 2006 was a watershed year at the Santiago Bernabeu. It was the year when Real Madrid were eliminated from the Champions League by the English Premier League club Arsenal and for the fourth successive campaign, had nothing to show for the season in Europe.
They finished as runners-up in La Liga, were knocked out of the Copa del Rey at the semi-finals stage and could not go beyond the Round of 16 at the UEFA Champions League competition with new head coach Juan Ramon Lopez Caro, who was appointed mid-season.
Early in the second half of the season, on Monday, February 27, 2006, Perez resigned as President of the Madrid side.
He was replaced via elections that followed by Ramon Calderon on 2nd July 2006 and Calderon subsequently appointed Fabio Capello as the new coach and Predrag Mijatovic as the new sporting director.
Perez at the time must have had all these circumstantial issues at heart when he made these comments as he strongly held to the reasoning that Raul was behind some of the reasons why he stepped down.
However, in June 2009, Perez returned as President to Real again and continued with his “Galacticos” policy, the widely successful policy of recruiting one expensive, world-famous player into the club every Summer to remain extremely competitive all season long.
Coincidentally, Raul holds the record for most Real Madrid appearances, having played 741 first-team matches from 1994 to 2010 and Casillas comes second with 725 appearances. And although Casillas has retired, Raul is still very much a part of the team. He is the current manager of Real Madrid Castilla, Real’s reserve team that plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
