- Ramón Calderón
Ramón Calderón Ramos (born
26 May 1951 inPalencia ,Spain ) is alawyer , and the current President of Spanishsports club Real Madrid .Life and career
Calderon was elected President of of Real in
2 July 2006 , winning the elections with 8,344 votes whilstJuan Palacios was second with 8,098. After discussions with his football director,Predrag Mijatovic , Calderon hiredFabio Capello as club manager, after initially consideringBernd Schuster , the manager of Getafe. [http://www.tribalfootball.com/article.php?id=14251title]Amongst his promises when running for election was the signing of
Arjen Robben from Chelsea,Cesc Fàbregas from Arsenal andKaká fromAC 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 andMahamadou Diarra from Olympique Lyon as well as delivering on his promise to acquireArjen Robben from Chelsea. A year long loan swap deal was also concluded withJosé Antonio Reyes from Arsenal moving to Real Madrid in exchange forJúlio Baptista . Before the start of the 2008/2009 season, he promised to deliverCristiano Ronaldo to the club.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 teamLos 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. [http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/europe/6279755.stm]
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 andCristiano 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. [ [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/football/premier_league/manchester_united/article3991332.ece Sir Alex Ferguson: Real have no morals | Manchester United - Times Online ] ] [ [http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/23052008/58/premier-league-fergie-blasts-immoral-real.html Premier League - Fergie blasts "immoral" Real - Yahoo! Eurosport UK ] ]
References
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010.
