The Royal Team of Spain

Real Madrid on paper have achieved more in Europe than any other football club. Based in the country's capital City in a stadium known as the Santiago Bernebeu they are a side that every player wants to play for and every football club fears. The Santiago Bernebeu seats over 80,000 people and the club really are the giants of the modern game. Real Madrid were founded in 1902 and acquired the name 'Real' meaning royal in Spanish after receiving a blessing from King Alfonso XIII in 1928. Madrid have been awarded the FIFA 'Best Club of the 20th Century' award due to their domestic league success and shear domination across Europe. In all of the years of the Spanish national league Real Madrid have never been relegated out of the top flight.

Players that make it onto the pitch of the Santiago Bernebeu are known as the Galacticos meaning super stars in Spanish. This term comes from Florentino Perez's presidency where he would aim to purchase one of the world's top players every season. Because of this title it is a club that every footballer would like to play for at some point in their career. The Galacticos theory has in recent seasons brought problems to Real Madrid. A few seasons back it was rivals Barcelona that dominated the Spanish top flight and Real Madrid never seemed to come close to their standard. It became apparent that they had over done it on the superstar purchases and were buying players for their names and not how they would fit into the team. Madrid have recently had a bit of a clear out and have returned to the top of the game.

Real Madrid are a team that settles for nothing other than perfection. It is not uncommon for Madrid to win their domestic title only for the manager to be sacked at the end of the season. This happened to the Italian manager Fabio Capello in recent times. If they think that they can do better they always will. Financially Madrid have always been one of the richest clubs in the world. This is unlikely to change as they are such a strong global brand. They play a style of football that is very pleasing to the eye similar to that of Brazil. It is fast paced one touch football and never short of goals. Defence has never been a focus point for Real Madrid. They play with the attitude that if you score 3 we will score 4.

The legacy that is Real Madrid is something that no other football club has managed to achieve and it is highly likely that no other football club ever will.

History

Awarded the title of 'the most successful football club of the twentieth century' by F.I.F.A., Real Madrid, nine years into the twenty first, look to have a lot of work to do to retain their crown!

It seems incredible but the club that has won two Champions' League (2000 and 2002) and four La Giga titles since the beginning of the Millennium has seemed to lurch - comically in the eyes of many - from one crisis to another.

How many clubs can you think of that would sack their manager hours after winning the Champions' League for a record time? Real Madrid did in 2002 with Vincent del Bosque.

How many clubs would bring back a manager who won the league title for them in his only ever season with the club and then sack him immediately after he repeated the feat? Real Madrid did that to Fabio Capello in 2007.

How many clubs would replace their president, Florentino Pérez,because his so-called gallactico policy of bringing the world's best players to the club had spectacularly imploded, replace him with a president who later is alleged to have rigged the voting, and then re-elect Señor Pérez unopposed because he vowed, again, to bring all the world's best players to Madrid?

Well, you could go on for a long time pointing out such eccentricities. But it would all be pointless in the eyes of the Madrid afícionados who will, quite rightly, remind you that they are the richest club in the world, the most commercially successful - largely because of the aforementioned Florentino Pérez - and, at the time of writing, were being linked in the transfer market with almost any player capable of tying up his own boot laces. Or, in the case of Christiano Ronaldo, probably getting one of his 'less talented' team mates to tie them up for him so that he could save his energy for scoring great goals, trying to get opposing players sent off and sulking when the referee doesn't agree with him. There are those of us who think that Ronaldo and Real Madrid are a perfect match for each other: talented and good-looking but arrogant, untrustworthy and not much good in a fight.

And yet, for all this sniping criticism, I have loved watching Real Madrid sometimes in the past few years. When Roberto Carlos and Zidane combined down the left wing; when Beckham curved in centres for Raul to head home; when Sergio Ramos rampaged all over the pitch attempting to inspire his lethargic team to lift themselves; and when 'Saint Iker' Casillas showed, time after time, why he is undoubtedly the greatest goalkeeper in the world.

Because, the Bernabéu is a great place to watch football - for a neutral it can be just as entertaining to watch the crowd when Madrid are playing badly - and Real Madrid can be an exhilarating force when they play at their best.

Spain, and the Champions' League, need a strong, fast-flowing, attractive Real Madrid team - it's part of the fabric of life. Barcelona were a wonderful side this year but they had it too easy; Real need to make them justify their 'Dream Team' tag a lot more next season. Getting knocked out in the Champions' League Quarter Finals year after year isn't good enough either - and football is the worse for it.

Those of us who were weaned on the team that won the European Cup at Hampden Park all those years ago need to see a great Real Madrid team again - so, come on, Florentino, get that Cheque Book out and let's see the end of Real Madrid as a laughing stock and instead give us something to scare the living daylights out of those imposters in Manchester, London, Milan and Barcelona - especially Barcelona.