Ronaldo is...The Ultimate Galactico
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Four shirts in different languages. No wonder Ronaldo is...The Ultimate Galactico
By Michael Walker in Madrid, on the trail of the best player in the world as he prepares to make his Real bow
Mr International: Cristiano Ronaldo’s appeal means the club have also printed shirts in (clockwise from above right) Chinese, Japanese and Arabic
They drove to the outskirts of the city, to stand on the sun-scorched scrubland where the Spanish building boom has stalled, in mid-morning temperatures of 90 degrees, simply in hope.
There might be a glance, at best there could be an autograph, but the Real Madrid believers appeared content to wait while the tarmac glistened. This was Real's training ground on Thursday morning and what it showed was that, as well as Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso, Real Madrid have once again got another beguiling asset on their side: anticipation.
It is a powerful force at any club and it should make even a seen-itall stadium like the Bernabeu quiver. There on Saturday night, La Liga returns and, like a Hollywood sequel, the Galacticos are back.
Time will tell if they are to be better this time but, in terms of personalities, fees and audacity, they are this summer's blockbuster.
Ronaldo, Kaka, Benzema and Alonso will make their debuts in front of 80,000 in the towering stands and millions more watching around the world. When Ronaldo signed in June, 80,000 turned up to see him get changed.
Television crews from 32 countries were there, his shirt name was printed in Arabic, Chinese and Japanese as well as English. This is football, showbiz and branding entwined on a global scale. Again.
Just in case there is not enough stardust for tonight's occasion, a certain Senor Usain Bolt is due to be guest of honour. When Bolt shakes hands with Ronaldo, the fastest runner on the planet will greet its most expensive footballer.
It is impossible to separate what Real Madrid have done this summer from the cost, but a pleasing side effect for Spain is that Real's £220m-worth of summer recruits has amplified the country's claim to be the centre of football's universe.
For Kaka - world player of the year in 2007 - Real broke the global transfer record in paying Milan £56m. For Ronaldo - world player of the year 2008 - Real broke it again, paying Manchester United £80m. The two previous records had been for Figo and Zidane. It is an astonishing Perez quartet. And Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery remains on the horizon.
Yet not all are impressed. Barcelona are as angry as they are perplexed. In Rome in May they not only clinched an historic treble of La Liga title, Copa del Rey and Champions League, in the same month Pep Guardiola's team went to the Bernabeu and took Madrid apart, winning 6-2. Gerard Pique scored the sixth that glorious Barca night. He had hoped to wallow all summer in the achievement but last week he said: 'You put the telly on and Madrid are the first thing on.'
Pique's is not the only dissenting voice. Inside the sterilised cleanliness of the Madrid training ground, the press room overlooks the strikingly green pitch on which the first team train. When training starts, an electronic screen oozes down the floor-to-ceiling window. It's a black-out. When training ends, the screen rises slowly.
When it did so on Thursday, the pitch was all there was left. But beyond it was a vista stretching back into Madrid and a skyline dominated by four skyscraper towers. Their nicknames are instructive: Figo, Zidane, Beckham and Ronaldo.
This is the site of the old Real Madrid training ground. Faced with more than £200m debt, in 2001 Perez sanctioned the sale of the ground. Real got £382m for it. Eight years on, it remains a breath-taking sum.
The profit helped buy Zidane and, in 2002, the Champions League. A league title followed in 2003, but then three seasons passed without a trophy and Perez's galactico policy lost lustre. Ultimately the first galactico experiment failed.
Beckham's presence sold a million shirts, so they claimed, but as Perez admitted before walking out: 'We sinned from an excess of ambition.'
But now he is back, with galacticos II. The excitement Perez cherishes has returned with a rush but, as before, does excitement equal cash? Something else asked domestically is: how in the midst of Spain's worst recession for generations, with unemployment touching 18 per cent, did Perez persuade banks Caja Madrid and Banco Santander to release a loan for £120m? And what is that borrowing set against?
'The numbers don't seem to fit,' Eugenio Martinez Bravo told Sportsmail this week. Martinez Bravo leads a 2,000-strong supporters' group called Plataforma Blanca; he stood against Perez for president.
'The funds are basically coming from debt and we don't have much more to give to the banks as guarantees. Like every fan, I am enthusiastic about the new signings, their quality. The club needed change, no question, but if we don't win any titles, then it is going to be dangerous. The only big asset left is the Bernabeu.'
Perez can say that £87m has been recovered in sales this summer but the overall concern will chime with Liverpool and Manchester United supporters. And Martinez Blanco has another: 'On the pitch, will it work? Is this a team?'
That is where Manuel Pellegrini comes in. The 55-year-old Chilean has had five successful years at Villarreal. Pellegrini has demonstrated his talent but he is sure to be aware that he is Real's 11th manager in 10 years.
Accommodating superstars on and off the pitch is only one of his tasks. So far, off it, there have been no problems. Most Real players live in the La Moraleja district near the training ground but Cristiano - as he's known here - has chosen Finca on the other side of the city. Nothing is being read into that and he and Kaka have given a chummy joint interview in Portuguese to Real Madrid TV.
On the pitch, Pellegrini has used Ronaldo on the left and Kaka on the right, behind a front pairing of Benzema and Raul. Further back, Lassana Diarra and Alonso will sit in front of the back four. It is a sort-of 4-2-2-2 formation and a worry is that, like the finances, it is top heavy.
In one way, so is La Liga. You can get odds of 33-1 against Atletico Madrid winning the title, 40-1 Seville and 80-1 Valencia. The latter are e500m in debt and have a half-built new stadium. So there is also caution: England possessing three of last season's four Champions League semi-finalists was mentioned this week in newspaper Marca.
Yet Valencia retained players of the calibre of David Silva and David Villa, two of the reasons for La Liga's self-confidence. Kaka and Ronaldo are two more and mostly there is the tingle of anticipation. Against Deportivo La Coruna on Saturday night, those who waited on the edge of town, all around Spain and across the world will be given a glimpse into Real Madrid's new era. Galacticos II: where will it end?