Cristiano Ronaldo is the new David Beckham, according to Real Madrid’s president-in-waiting Florentino Perez.
Former Real president Perez is expected to be installed as the club’s kingpin once more this summer and will set about righting what he perceives as the wrongs of the three and a bit years since he was last in charge of the club.
Perez’s successor Ramon Calderon tried unsuccessfully to bring Ronaldo to the Spanish capital, but the latter's attempts were too little, too late, according to Perez, who believes the Portuguese should have been signed immediately after the departure of Beckham in order to maintain his team's quota of marketable commodities or 'Galacticos'.
“Madrid should have brought Cristiano Ronaldo as Beckham’s replacement two years ago,” Perez told the Sunday Times.
“There are specific footballers who can turn out to be very profitable, because of the commercial benefits they bring the club.
“For instance, we once brought in €15m for playing two matches in Japan. That would not happen in the current climate but they did it then because we had Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo and Beckham.
Perez added: "If Cristiano Ronaldo comes in, we would have a Nike-endorsed player putting on an adidas shirt every week,”
“In the previous time, we established a model which allowed us to pay off our debts and raise our income, and we did it by investing in great players.
“They brought money in, the model worked.”
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