“He wasn't a header of the ball and he rarely passed the ball more than three meters.”
That was Florentino Pérez’s scathing assessment of Claude Makélélé, after the holding midfielder left Real Madrid for Chelsea in the summer of 2003.
“Younger players will arrive who will cause Makélélé to be forgotten,” the president added for good measure.
The spiteful words, and contract standoff that led to the then 30-year-old France star’s exit, proved to be an enormous miscalculation from Pérez, with Madrid struggling badly in the years following his departure.
Lacking balance in the engine room, the team buckled under the weight of too many attacking superstars and it was four years before Real Madrid won another major trophy. Makélélé went on to redefine a whole position at Chelsea as the world’s best defensive midfielder. The episode came to be perhaps the defining moment in the fall of the first Galácticos era.
“Why put another layer of gold paint on the Bentley when you are losing the entire engine?” Zinedine Zidane famously lamented.
More than 20 years on, Pérez’s preference for flair over function remains.
Pérez Shuns Defensive Midfield Signings
Of Madrid’s top 20 most expensive signings, only six can reasonably be classed as defensive players and only one is a Makélélé-adjacent midfield enforcer: Aurélien Tchouaméni.
When asked about his transfer plans in an interview with TV show Horizonte during his re-election campaign earlier this year, Pérez teased “you always need more forwards” as he pledged to bid a club-record €150 million ($170 million) for an unnamed superstar. Pressed on who the mystery player might be, he said: “It’s a signing meant to generate excitement because that’s what it’s all about, generating excitement.”
After links to Julián Alvarez and Michael Olise, it appears Pérez will land his excitement-generating forward in the form of Yan Diomande, who is set to arrive for over €100 million ($114 million).
Before the summer, however, few would’ve picked the attack as the area of the pitch that needed such heavy investment. In two trophyless seasons since Toni Kroos’s exit, Madrid have struggled badly with control in the biggest moments. And yet, no replacement for the German or Luka Modrić, who left a year later, has been found.
Madrid Midfielder Signings Under Pérez Since 2009
| Player | Year | Transfer Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Xabi Alonso | 2009 | €34.5 million |
| Sami Khedira | 2010 | €14 million |
| Nuri Sahin | 2011 | €10 million |
| Luka Modrić | 2012 | €35 million |
| Asier Illarramendi | 2013 | €32 million |
| Casemiro | 2013 | €6 million |
| Toni Kroos | 2014 | €25 million |
| Mateo Kovačić | 2015 | €38 million |
| Dani Ceballos | 2017 | €16 million |
| Eduardo Camavinga | 2021 | €31 million |
| Aurélien Tchouaméni | 2022 | €80 million |
In fact, in the 12 years since Kroos was signed, won five Champions League titles and retired, Madrid have paid actual money for just three more midfielders whose primary function is to sit deeper— Mateo Kovačić, Eduardo Camavinga and Tchouaméni. Barcelona, by contrast, have signed 14.
For Pérez, buying midfielders who aren’t primarily attacking is like most people’s attitudes to buying a dishwasher: get by without for as long as possible, spend only when you absolutely have to, then hope you don’t need to replace it for years to come.
Rodri Moves Marks Major Shift
All this makes Madrid’s move for Rodri all the more unusual.
Pérez’s 2003 criticisms of Makélélé could easily apply to the Spain and Manchester City midfielder, who rarely scores or beats players with ankle-twisting dribbles, and yet reports indicate Madrid are willing to pay north of €50 million ($57 million) to land the player who has a year left to run on his current contract.
In addition to being an unfashionable holding midfielder, Rodri is also injury-prone—he suffered an ACL tear in 2024 and has undergone back surgery this summer—while he also commits the cardinal sin of being older than 30.
Of Madrid’s 20 most expensive signings to date, 15 were 25 or younger at the time of their transfer, with Zidane the oldest at 29 when he joined from Juventus in 2001.
Real Madrid have operated under an unwritten age policy since Pérez’s return to power 2009. Before this summer, only three players aged 30 or above had moved to the Bernabéu, and none for a fee even half what Rodri is likely to cost.
Over-30 Signings Under Pérez
| Player | Year | Fee |
|---|---|---|
| Ricardo Carvalho | 2010 | €8 million |
| Diego López | 2013 | €3.5 million |
| Joselu | 2023 | €2 million |
| Bernardo Silva | 2026 | Free |
| Denzel Dumfries | 2026 | €20 million |
For most of the summer, reports indicated that Pérez was very much not interested in Rodri, despite a new deep-lying midfield playmaker being on the transfer to-do list. So, what’s changed now?
Rodri has, of course, enjoyed a transformative summer, winning the 2026 World Cup as captain with Spain and breaking tournament records for passing as La Roja dominated possession and control on the way to their second star.
After an injury-hit and ultimately disappointing season with City in 2025–26, Rodri’s Golden Ball-winning turn in North America has restored his reputation as the sport’s pre-eminent midfielder—a timely boost given Pérez’s preference for the biggest and best.
There is every chance Rodri could yet end the year as a two-time Ballon d’Or winner and, given his contract situation, there is simply no other player on the market like him.
There also appears to have been a wider policy shift at the club this summer, with experienced operators Bernardo Silva (31) and Denzel Dumfries (30) recruited as part of Mourinho’s rebuild, with the roster lacking locker-room leaders.
Since Pérez landed the signing of Kylian Mbappé two years ago and Kroos retired, Madrid have yet to win a major trophy, with obvious parallels between this version of the team and the over-stuffed, ego-heavy side that Makélélé departed in 2003.
Adding Rodri to the mix gives Pérez a chance to atone for his mistakes over 20 years on and rebuild this version of Real Madrid’s Galácticos as a proper team rather than a collection of superstars.
Back in 2024, Rodri told Spanish media: “When Real Madrid call you ... you always have to pay attention.”
It seems now, Madrid are also finally paying attention to him.
