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In Pictures
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Galacticos
Florentino Perez ushers in the first Galactico era at Real Madrid by signing Luis Figo from hated rivals Barcelona in 2000 [GALLO/GETTY]
Published On 3 Jul 2009
3 Jul 2009
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A year later, World and European champion Zinedine Zidane joins and scores the winning goal in the Champions League final [GALLO/GETTY]
The original Ronaldo arrives in 2002 to boost Vicente del Bosque's all-conquering team [GALLO/GETTY]
David Beckham arrives in 2003 and the fans in Thailand love it [GALLO/GETTY]
Galactico for a year: Michael Owen spent most of 2004/05 on the bench but scored 13 goals [GALLO/GETTY]
Perez is re-elected in June 2009 and Brazilian Kaka arrives for $92million [GALLO/GETTY]
Cristiano Ronaldo is hot on Kaka's heels with a world-record $130million transfer [GALLO/GETTY]
Karim Benzema arrives for $50million after 13 goalscoring years at Lyon [GALLO/GETTY]
Spain defender Raul Albiol takes the summer spending to $300million as he completes a move from Valencia [GALLO/GETTY]