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ORGE VALDANO was a World Cup

winner with Argentina in 1986,

scoring a goal in the 3-2 win over

Germany in the fnal. An attacking

player, he was in the Real Madrid

team at the time and returned as manager rom

1994 to 1996, winning La Liga in his frst season.

He later returned as Sporting Director but resigned

in 2005, jaded by the galacticos era. Then, in

2009, he returned as director general and set

about reshaping the club and ending the domestic

dominance o Barcelona. The job brings many

tensions, including some, reportedly, between him

and Jos Mourinho, but i there is an enemy within,

it is not the biggest one.

Just beore the season entered its dnouement

in the Champions League and the Spanish league I went to Madrid to catch up on his progress. Its

now 25 years since the Argentine was a top-class

ootballer himsel but he remains a great thinker, and

talker, on the sport, and an author o several books.

Sitting in one o Reals conerence rooms, I kick o

by asking: how great is the dierence between the

stars o his day and those o today?

P, Valdano blows out air through his lips.

Thats incomparable. In my day as a player there

were also guys who did strange things. Take my

old teammate at Real, the late Juanito. He had an

enormous explosive personality, on the pitch and o

it. He sometimes got into trouble. But i you add up

all his sins, you get to 40 seconds at most. The rest

was just a boy being naughty. And whatever he got

up to, on the feld he always showed himsel, threw

himsel heart and soul into battle. What sometimes

annoys me now is that well-paid players, who are

adored like rock stars, behave dubiously o the feld

and that you see the consequences o that.

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+ Footballers have become real society fgures.

Real Madrid players now appear in ashion

shows, open nightclubs or trendy shops.

In my time as a player that was unthinkable, but then

it was 25 years ago. Its logical that some things have

changed. It doesnt really matter what players do in their

ree time, as long as they assume their responsibilities.

The public wont accept it i a well-paid perormer

messes up. The spectators demand discipline, and

want to see results. Those laws havent changed.

+ But the managers role has?

Clearly. The contact with the player used to be much

more direct. Now there are all sorts o layers in

between. I you need to speak to a player now, you

oten have to deal with his agent or agents. The biggest

stars have oten built a clan around themselves.Youre not just talking to the player, but to his whole

entourage. The players ather. The players publicity

agent. The players girlriend.

It quickly gets ormal. Its much harder now or a

coach to touch a player, or to correct him, i a wall has

been built up around him.

+ That doesnt sound like progress.

Its the times we live in, and you have to accept that. It

was simpler 25 years ago. A player was an employee,

with rights, but above all, lots o obligations. Now a

player is a company within a company, a publicity

machine, a role model, and oh yes, he plays ootball.

+ Youre in your second period as technical

director. In the frst era, Real bought galacticos,

great stars. Beckham had to come, so a crucial

player like Claude Makelele the teams cement

between the stones was sold to Chelsea. You

ought in vain to keep Makelele at Real, and soon

aterwards you drew your own conclusions and

let the club.

I dont want to say too much about that, because its

aqua pasada, water under the bridge, and moreoverits part o the intimacy o a club, but its clear to

me that Makelele was a key player or years, and in

addition the sort o player who is not easy to recognise

as such. We signed a number o wonderul, great

players like Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham, and

also several players came up rom the youth academy.

You have to watch a process like that closely. Eleven

stars dont make a team. You always also need

players like Xabi Alonso. Guys who might not look

so spectacular, but who can read a game. Who can

destroy a counter-attack by taking one step let or right.

Sometimes theres too little attention or that.

+ You returned in 2009 to a dierent situation.

Now Barcelona are ootballs ruling club. Did the

5-0 deeat in November make you despondent?

Not at all. This might sound strange, but Barcelonas

strength inspires us. This is the best FC Barcelona in

history! A team with three players competing or the

Golden Ball. A collection o players who can nd each

other even in the dark. But some teams have shown

that this team can be combated. The moment will

come when Barcelona awakens rom its dream.

That always happens in ootball. Barcelona is onthe crest o the wave.

Real Madrid is a team that introduced new players

again last summer. In two years time almost the

whole team has been renovated. You could even say

we have developed spectacularly. We can only get

stronger. Theres no reason to be despondent about

the uture. Now we have a side with an average age

o 24. Marcelo is 22, zil

enjoy them or years. Foo

Now its Barcelona, and t

these movements in ootb

You could say that the

style o play. Johan Cruy

club, rst as a player and

the head o Bara is a pe

respect or this culture to

Pep Guardiola [the curren

always dierent. At Real tor triumph. Theres an ad

who gives everything. Th

Maria has had such rapid

also a desire or spectacl

things here. In Barcelona

its the play, then the resu

You could say that i Ba

Cruy, Real Madrid is Alre

was a star who was totally

a deeat, it was best not to

teammates would be sca

would be spitting re. I th

orget about beauty and ju

player who has ever playe

has been infuenced by th

by the desire to win, Real

rom lost positions. Here t

+ But isnt the ootbal

right now the beautiu

always sought?

Haha! Im a great admirer

European and not a Span

and or me the Brazil o 19

o ootball. It contained a

ootball, though the Dutc

Ronaldo is a perect proessional. Almost obsessive.Ive never seen anyone with such a physique.Others get tired; he doesnt. At the end o the

game hes still as sharp as a jaguar

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REAL

BIGEARNERS

FOR THE sixth straight year, Real Madrid have

topped the list o ootballs biggest money-making

clubs, generating A$596.21m in the fnancial year

ending June 30, 2010.

In its annual review o ootball, fnancial service

company Deloitte compiled a list o the highest-earning clubs in the world. The 11 top clubs are

shown below, with their place on the list the

previous year aterwards.

Footballs rich list

(in AustrAliAn dollArs)

1 Real Madrid, Spain, 596.2m (1)

2 Barcelona, Spain, 541.3m (2)

3 Manchester United, England, 475.6m (3)

4 Bayern Munich, Germany, 439.2m (4)

5 Arsenal, England, 372.7m (5)

6 Chelsea, England, 348.1m (6)

7 AC Milan, Italy, 320.7m (10)

8 Liverpool, England, 306.4m (7)

9 Inter Milan, Italy, 305.7m (9)

10 Juventus, Italy, 278.8m (8)

11 Manchester City, England, 207.8 m (20)

played it in a higher tempo. That Brazilian team had ve

No.10s, in dierent parts o the pitch.

+ You have always propagated beautiul ootball,

but last year Real hired a coach, Jos Mourinho,

who doesnt even aspire to beautiul ootball.

My views are well-known. I have described them

in ve books, and all my teams when I coached

Tenerie, Real Madrid and Valencia played the kind

o ootball I believed in. But its not my job to interpret

my own views. In my position o technical director, my

job is to interpret the views o the club. And with the

departure o experienced players like Ral and Guti,

and the introduction o young players, Real above all

needed a strong leader. That is Mourinho. He was the

coach this club needed. I am very happy with him.

+ You see Mourinho up close. How would you

describe him?

Hes a proessional obsessed by his work. Tactically

highly competent. Very knowledgeable about physical

preparation. A demanding coach.

+ Can you already see his hand in this team?

Yes, in its dedication. We havent yet lost a point

because the players werent trying hard enough. These

players give everything they have. Surely that must

have something to do with the coachs personality?

+ Is the Mourinho you see up close the loud,

shouty fgure that we see rom aar?

No. In the way great players and coaches are

perceived in the media, there is oten a colossal

misunderstanding. The Mourinho you see roma distance would not have the support o all his

players let alone o his ex-players. Almost nobody

who has worked under his discipline speaks badly o

Mourinho. Ive seen the same thing with many players,

like Ral: great ootballers who are nonetheless great

unknowns. Its incredible in this society o the image,

with the projection in the media that players have

today, that this situation is so common.

+ Is that because Mourinho is acting a role?

No, not at all. In his public appearances Mourinho

is very direct. He is so honest in his reactions that

his words are oten interpreted as provocations,

and lead to conficts. They are understood as signs

o aggression, whereas he only says what he truly

believes. In everything he says, he is mostly aiming to

protect his players or to stand up or the interests o the

club. What cannot be denied is that he is direct alsotowards the players. He demands a lot, imposes a lot.

They have more duties than liberties under this coach.

+ And yet you say theyre happy with him?

Thats a dierence with the past. When I was a player, I

and many o my teammates liked having more liberties

than duties. Today they seem to preer having more

duties than liberties. The modern ootballer seems to

preer a demanding coach who imposes a regime on

him. That makes them eel comortable. Everything

is clear, they know where they are, dont need to

worry about anything. You could see that as sae and

comortable. They dont seem to demand reedom.

And yet Real Madrid has some very s trong

personalities. We have Iker Casillas, captain o the

world champions. A very intelligent guy like Xabi

Alonso. Someone like Sergio Ramos, who has been

here or years. And a man like Cristiano Ronaldo with

his tremendous character. But they all ollow Mourinho.

He brings clarity and that was what this team and thisclub required. This is a club that moves amid great

turbulence. Its a universal ocus o news.

+ Cristiano Ronaldo is thriving here.

Cristiano is doing wonderully. But stars like him are

megastars in the media. So much nonsense gets told.

The acts are that Ronaldo averages a goal a match,

and is super-dominant in every game. Hes decisive.

Beore he arrived here, the photographers were lined

up in the nightclubs waiting or him. They are still

waiting. Ronaldo is a perect proessional, devoted to

his job. Almost obsessive. The training he does, both

technical and physical, is extreme. Hes a model in the

way he takes care o his body. Ive never seen anyone

with such a physique. Others get tired; he doesnt. Atthe end o the game hes still as sharp as a jaguar. I

the matches lasted 20 minutes longer, hed now have

twice as many goals. And how does he achieve that?

At training or in the night

gives a player rest. Rona

always wants to play, eve

+ Twenty-fve years a

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No, nothing. When the S

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