The Return of the Kings: Real Madrid’s 96/97
All but the most casual of football fans know of Real Madrid and ‘Galacticos’. The club has won the European Cup/ Champions League a record fifteen times and signs superstars almost every season:
Jude Bellingham last summer. Kylian Mbappe this summer. Both players for whom any club in the world would bite your hand off. The club will go into the 24/25 season having won La Liga and the Champions League once more.
But, rewind to the end of the 95/96 season and a very different picture emerges.
Real had just finished sixth, were facing their first season without European competition since 1977/78 and they had not been a force in Europe for a long time. There were two UEFA cup wins in the 1980s but Los Blancos had not won the European Cup / Champions League since 1966. With hindsight, the 96/97 season can be seen as the catalyst for the great success Real Madrid would go on to achieve in more recent times under Carlo Ancelotti. In the 96/97 season there was also an Italian in charge, Fabio Capello, who had just come from AC Milan having won four Serie A titles in five seasons. The first of which Carlo Ancelotti played under Capello.
Back in the UK in 1996 people with access to SKY TV (unlike Rishi Sunak) could enjoy their Sunday nights with a heady mixture of fictional and non-fictional football. They could watch Sky One's Dream Team and the exploits of Carl Fletcher and Harchester United, before then tuning into the big La Liga game on Sky Sports.Real Madrid were often the box office draw despite the disaster of the 95/96 season.
As the autumn nights of 1996 approached, new head coach Fabio Capello oversaw an overhaul. The bigger names were sent away such as faded legend Michael Laudrup (to Vissel Kobe), cult hero Ivan Zamorano (to Inter), Freddy Rincon (to Palmerias) & future Spain coach, Luis Enrique to deadly rivals Barcelona.
A new spine of the team was signed to help those in the stadium, as well as the international audience watching at home glued to the action on the pitch. Bodo Illgner was a veteran goalkeeper who had been the mainstay of the FC Köln team for the last ten years. He would go on to be the main man for Real until succeeded by an eighteen year old Iker Casillas in the 99/00 season.
Roberto Carlos was a twenty three year old Brazilian left back who had just completed his first season in European football at Inter. Capello has said that Inter were looking to offload him, and Madrid benefitted from Roy Hodgson’s lack of faith in the future all time great since, in his view, the Brazilian could not mark well enough.
Clarence Seedorf, a Dutch midfielder signed from Sampdoria where he spent just one season. He had already won the Champions league with Ajax and would go on to be the only player to have won the Champions league with three different clubs (Ajax in 1995, 98 Real Madrid in 1998 and AC Milan in 2003 and 2007).
Predrag Mijatovic, the Yugoslavian forward joined the Dutch maestro, having banged in 34 goals in all competitions for Valencia the previous season winning the league.
Finally, Davor Suker, the Croatian forward was signed from Sevilla. Suker had just finished second to Alan Shearer in the Euro 96 golden boot, having lit up the tournament with a glorious chip over Peter Schmeichel against Denmark.
To compliment these new signings were existing players such as Fernando Hierro at centre back, the stalwart and leader of the squad and Raul Gonzalez Blanco, a future Real legend who had just completed his breakthrough season banging in twenty six goals in all competitions. Finally Fernando Redondo, Argentine international and a tenacious deep lying midfielder who was about to begin his third season at the club.
The build up to the season increased the anticipation and pressure on the team to return to their successes of the past. It was, as the pundits say, a very decent side on paper but could Capello make them gel, could they hit the ground running? Hindsight reveals that the answer to this question is unequivocally yes.
Two draws in the first three games against Deportivo and Betis was not a blistering start but, before this shaky beginning could result in fan antagonism, Real would go on to not lose a match until round 25 in February, a slightly embarrassing loss to Madrid rivals Rayo Vallecano. What was obvious to the viewers captivated by this side, was the chemistry between Suker and Mijatovic. It was like watching telepathy in action.
The creativity of Mijatovic left people breathless but many were more drawn towards the goal scoring prowess of Suker. He did not look like a striker, a skinny man with a sensible haircut more akin to a dad dropping off their son at a five-a-side than a world class footballer. Put Suker in a grey suit and he could have easily been passed off as an accountant. In this case appearances were deceptive and Suker helped himself to twenty nine goals in all competitions, with a mixture of deadly finishing in and around the box and some beautiful free kicks.
The telepathy between Suker and Mijatovic was not a happy accident as it turns out. Suker and Mijatovic, a Croatian and a Serbian were both part of the winning 1987 Yugoslavia FIFA World Youth Championship team.
The fact these two played together as youths shone through as Real steam-rollered all before them in the first half of the season. In the winter window Real did not rest on their laurels and strengthened with Christian Panucci reuniting with Capello from AC Milan and Brazilian midfielder Ze Roberto joining from Portuguesa.
After the shock loss to Rayo Vallecano it was business as usual again with Los Blancos going on a run of eleven games unbeaten, with eight wins and three draws. Next up el classico rivals Barcelona, the only team with any chance of stopping Real.
Madrid had recorded a 2-0 win in the home game back in December with both Suker and Mijatovic scoring, this was at the Nou Camp though. A very cagey game with few chances, eventually decided when Barcelona were awarded a penalty. Ronaldo, o fenomeno stepped up and Illgner saved, Ronaldo converted at the second time of asking though for his 44th goal of the season. Real still sat top of the table but Barca were still in the race, five points behind with five games to go.
It turned out to be too little too late for Barca with Real clinching the title in the penultimate game of the season, against city rivals Atletico. A 3-1 win, with three key players from the season scoring, Raul, Hierro & Mijatovic.
Suker and Mijatovic finished as runners up to Ronaldo in the league top scorer and Ballon D’Or respectively, but their telepathic chemistry won the title ahead of the Brazilian this was the start of a new era for Real. Capello would depart but the building blocks had been put in place: Real were back in the champions league and they would go on to win it in the next season (97/98) then again in 99/00.
Real were back at the top table of European football and, without this rebuild, perhaps the domination of continental competition that the club currently enjoy would never have taken place.