«Real Madrid has reached an agreement with Manchester United for the hiring of David Beckham. The captain of the English national team will play for Real Madrid from next season. The agreement between the clubs and the player is total and will materialize before July 2 through the approval of the Board of Directors and the appropriate medical examination.
It was just after nine o'clock on the night of June 17, 2003 and the world of football was paralyzed.. David Beckham, the most famous player in the world, legend of Manchester United and England, icon of trademarks, signed for the Real Madrid of the Galacticos. Florentino Pérez completed a dream puzzle in a team that had just lost in the Champions League semifinals against Juventus. A squad with Casillas, Roberto Carlos, Figo, Zidane, Raúl, Ronaldo…. and Beckham.
It was a movie landing that ended schizophrenic months in continental football. The same Beckham who was Laporta's electoral promise to win the Barcelona presidential elections became Florentino's latest star. «A signing that changed everything. The paradigm of sports marketing has changed”, says Álvaro Fernández Luna, professor of Sports Marketing at the European University. But let's start at the beginning, with the Bootgate. In February 2003, Ferguson threw a shoe at Beckham during training, starting a controversy that would result in his transfer to Madrid.
The turning point came in April.. The Whites and the Red Devils met in the quarterfinals of the Champions League with the return at Old Trafford, with the substitution of Beckham, with that hattrick from Ronaldo Nazario and with two goals from the English midfielder in the final stretch. “Never say never (never say never)”, Beckham said about Madrid, a few days before the historic “never, never, never (never, never, never)” by Florentino at the UEFA G14 summit.
Laporta's “bluff”
On June 10, and after statements by David's father, Ted, in which he assured that his son wanted to stay in Manchester, United announced an agreement with Laporta for the Englishman to sign for Barça if he won the elections.. Beckham's agency, however, denied the agreement because deep down the footballer wanted to play for Madrid and Laporta, after winning, admitted that he had never promised his signing. It was June 16. Years later, Lluís Bassat, Laporta's rival in the presidential race, would reveal that it was all “a bluff, an agreement between the agency of Ferguson's son and Barça”. A statement on the United website for one day “in exchange for signing a player from the agency”. Months later, the Turkish goalkeeper Rustu arrived at the Camp Nou. In Sardinia, meanwhile, The Sun photographed José Ángel Sánchez, then chief marketing officer and now chief executive of the club, alongside United chief executive David Gill.
The next day, Beckham became a Madrid player for 25 million. He wore the number 23, at the idea of Sánchez and Valdano in honor of Michael Jordan, the man who changed marketing in the US before Beckham changed it in European football. «He came with important commercial contracts, everything started with him. The opening to Asia, the income from merchandising thanks to the stars, now the remodeling of the Bernabéu and its 300 annual non-sports activities…. The paradigm shift was with Beckham. It is what is known as the proto-image of the firm”, adds Fernández. «They are business models used by entertainment companies. They offer a range of products to obtain income beyond the traditional ones.
On July 2, Beckham filled the old Raimundo Saporta pavilion for a historic presentation. 544 journalists and 46 cameras, thousands of people in the stands of the annex field, live signal (paying 9,000 euros) for the most important television channels in the world. In the locker room, some of his new teammates greeted him with a knee down as a joke because a couple of weeks ago he had been made Sir of the British Crown.. Much more than a footballer.