Ramón Calderón
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Ramón Calderón Ramos (born 26 May 1951 in Palencia, Spain) is a lawyer, and the current President of Spanish sports club Real Madrid.
[edit] Life and career
Calderon was elected President of Real in 2 July 2006, winning the elections with 8,344 votes whilst Juan Palacios was second with 8,098. After discussions with his football director, Predrag Mijatovic, Calderon hired Fabio Capello as club manager, after initially considering Bernd Schuster, the manager of Getafe. [1]
Amongst his promises when running for election was the signing of Arjen Robben from Chelsea, Cesc Fàbregas from Arsenal and Kaká from AC Milan. Despite denials from the respective clubs, Calderón remains confident that these transfers will be successful, downplaying the accusations of illegal approach from the clubs in question.
On 19 July 2006 he announced his first two signings, Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson; both signed from newly demoted Juventus for an estimated €20 million.
He later signed Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United and Mahamadou Diarra from Olympique Lyon. A year long loan swap deal was also concluded with José Antonio Reyes from Arsenal moving to Real Madrid in exchange for Júlio Baptista.
Real Madrid fans are especially grateful to him for bringing back the La Liga title back to Bernabéu after a 4 year silverware drought.
[edit] Controversy
In January 2007, it was reported that Calderón had made defamatory comments about Real midfielder David Beckham, who had been out of favour at the Spanish club and had recently signed a deal with MLS team Los Angeles Galaxy. Calderon was quoted as saying that Beckham would amount to nothing more than "an average cinema actor, working in Hollywood".
These comments, along with a seeming lack of respect for Real players and fans caused unrest at the club, resulting in him being confronted by players including Raúl. [2]
He is infamous for his quotes to the media, stating that Madrid will sign some of the world's elite. The most recent example is that of Cesc Fabregas, Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Real Madrid and Calderon have been criticised by Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson for what he called their immoral actions relating to their desire to sign Cristiano Ronaldo. [1] [2]
[edit] References
- ^ http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3991332.ece
- ^ Premier League - Fergie blasts "immoral" Real - Yahoo! Eurosport UK
| Preceded by Luis Gómez-Montejano |
Chairman of Real Madrid 2006–present |
Succeeded by Incumbent |
