7 times Real Madrid were the pettiest club in world football: Ballon d’Or boycott, Perez…
Real Madrid are one of the most successful clubs in the history of football – but it’s unarguable that the Spanish outfit are also one of the pettiest.
Madrid’s continued trophy lifts have often been soundtracked by the ruthless sacking of managers, disparaging opponents and attempts to undermine the very essence of football, not exactly making them popular with neutral supporters.
We’ve picked out seven reasons why Madrid are the pettiest club in world football, starting with a moment of supreme hubris…
Ballon d’Or boycott
Vinicius Junior was the front-runner for the 2024 Ballon d’Or and Madrid planned to send 50 delegates to the Paris ceremony and broadcast five hours of coverage on its TV channel.
But the European champions said its representatives would not go ‘where it is not respected’ after learning Vinicius would miss out on the award to Manchester City midfielder Rodri.
Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti and forward Kylian Mbappe both won individual honours but neither individual was present to receive their award.
It was reported that Real believed Vinicius’ team-mate Dani Carvajal had also been overlooked for the main prize.
“If the award criteria doesn’t give it to Vinicius as the winner, then those same criteria should point to Carvajal as the winner,” the club said in a statement to AFP and Spanish media.
In a way, Madrid’s public strop was reminiscent of football’s bygone chaotic eras. Everyone agreed it was a masterclass of pettiness.
Julen Lopetegui
As the Spain national team travelled to Russia for the 2018 World Cup as one of the favourites to win the competition, Madrid expertly undermined them by announcing they’d appointed their manager Julen Lopetegui for the following season.
Luis Ruiables, the infamous head of the Spanish FA, threw all his toys out of the pram and sacked Lopetegui two days before the World Cup started.
Spain limped to a last-16 defeat against the hosts, but the real impression was that Madrid didn’t give a solitary eff about anybody but themselves.
European Super League
The European Super League project from the spring of 2021 was effectively torpedoed once fans of the six English clubs took to the streets in protest at the money-grabbing shamelessness of all involved.
But Madrid, alongside Barcelona and Juventus, are still reportedly keen to implement the project and are thought to be working on tweaks to their idea within a top-secret lair. Probably.
Rather than accept defeat, Perez and co are still plotting to undermine the sport having seemingly grown bored of thrashing Alaves and Cadiz every week.
And now we have the bloated, pointless Champions League format revamp in response to Madrid’s scheming. Cheers lads.
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Booing their own players
Cristiano Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema are just three Madrid stars who have faced acid treatment from their own supporters in the Bernabeu.
In fact, Madrid supporters and the press outlets that back the club are some of the most vicious in world football. Talk about entitled…
READ: Six Real Madrid players vilified by the Spanish press: Bale, Owen…
El Chiringuito
The most bonkers TV channel in Spain (and that’s saying something), El Chiringuito came to the attention of English fans with its haughty reaction to Eden Hazard conversing with his former Chelsea team-mates after defeat in the 2021 Champions League semis.
And the Madrid-based football programme, with a penchant for amateur dramatics, shamelessly trumpeted Kylian Mbappe’s expected arrival at the Bernabeu before meeting his decision to stay at PSG in 2022 was met with spectacular indignation.
La Liga reported the French club to UEFA and believed what PSG spent to secure Mbappe’s signature “threatened the economic sustainability of European football.”
But that was still nothing on the fawning, and subsequent rejection, of the presenters of El Chiringutio. Even Mbappe’s later arrival at the Bernabeu couldn’t scrub away this shame.
Selling Claude Makelele
Back in 2003, Madrid’s Galacticos were the most glamorous club in world football with Ronaldo, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Roberto Carlos and Raul all lining up for Los Blancos.
But it was the stubbornly unglamorous Claude Makelele who made them tick, doing all the donkey work in midfield and allowing the assorted stars to concentrate on attacking.
So it should’ve been no surprise that Makelele wanted a pay rise to match his importance to the team. Madrid responded by selling him to Chelsea and buying David Beckham.
“Why do you need to add a gold layer on a Bentley, when you have already lost the engine?” asked Zidane. Because Madrid’s collective ego couldn’t withstand any dissent.
Employing Jose Mourinho
You get the impression Madrid hired Mourinho back in 2010 solely to bait Pep Guardiola and Barcelona, hoping the arch wind-up merchant would get under their rivals’ skin. It worked too.