Real Madrid will see in 2004 leading the Spanish first division and getting the unofficial accolade of being Spain’s ”winter champions” to round off an outstanding year.
There have been few better in the recent history of the nine-times European champions, even though they did not lift the ultimate prize of their 10th Champions League crown.
They emphasised their domestic dominance by winning a record 29th league title in June and then a month later they overtook Manchester United as the richest club in the world.
The road to the championship was far from smooth but, after a rocky start, Real held their nerve and six goals from Ronaldo in their last four games helped Real clinch the title.
Real’s defensive vulnerability was exposed in Europe where they lost in the Champions League semifinals to Juventus but they have reached this stage, at least, for the past four years and are favoured to do the same again.
The club’s excellence with the ball at their feet was emphasised by Zinedine Zidane picking up the 2003 Fifa World Player of the Year award earlier this month.
It was the third year in succession that a player who had been with Real for at least part of the year had received the accolade, with Zidane following in the bootmarks of Ronaldo and Luis Figo.
”The best players in the world do even better here than at their previous clubs,” boosted club president Florentino Perez on Monday.
Off the pitch, the respected magazine World Soccer assessed that Real Madrid’s income in the 2002 financial year was €252-million, nearly 22% higher than second-placed Manchester United.
Income this year is expected to be even higher after the July arrival of England captain David Beckham who is, in many parts of the world, the most recognisable sportsman on the planet.
Beckham was the central figure in Real’s lucrative pre-season tour of the Far East and the club’s merchandising sales have since hit record highs both in Spain and overseas.
”We are the biggest brand in the world,” added Perez at his traditional pre-Christmas lunch with the media on Monday, although it appears that Coca Cola or McDonald’s was not on the menu.
To the chagrin of their eternal rivals Barcelona, and many other clubs, the rest of the top flight of Spanish football have had to content themselves with living in Real’s shadow during the past 12 months.
However, Madrid don’t always have things their own way.
Real Sociedad finished second to Real Madrid last season and the Basque club were undefeated throughout the first half of last season until February.
Many pundits believe that Sociedad’s Turkish international Nihat Kaveci, who got 23 goals last season, was as good as any of Madrid’s gang of galacticos, as the Spanish media like to refer to Beckham, Ronaldo, Zidane and their teammates.
Deportivo la Coruna finished third in the last campaign and are in the same position again at the winter break.
Last term, the Galicans harnessed the firepower of Roy Makaay and the Dutch international fired home 29 goals to lift the European Golden Boot award before he moved on to Bayern Munich.
Real Madrid, Real Sociedad, Deportivo la Coruna and also Celta Vigo have reinforced the claims that Spain has the strongest league in the world by all reaching the last 16 of this season’s Champions League.
One name missing among the success stories of the past 12 months has been that of Barcelona.
The Catalan giants have lurched their way through the year, going from football crisis to financial crisis and back again.
In February there were dire predicitions that they were going to finish in the lower half of the first division for the first time in more than half a century and the doom-laden prophesies have been dusted off again as they finish the year in ninth place.
A cautious estimate of their debts runs at about €100-million and the summer purchase of Brazilian World Cup winner Ronaldinho has not solved their playing problems.
The lesson being painfully learned at Barca is that, especially if you are trying to keep pace with Real, you can spend big but you also need to spend wisely. — Sapa-AFP