Why Is Karim Benzema Better than the Galacticos? (Why the Galacticos Failed - The Whole Story)
Have we ever asked ourselves why Karim
Benzema has been Real Madrid's sole striker for more than 10 years straight?
Remember a couple of years ago when he was always heavily criticized for not
scoring and missing big chances? No matter how many strikers joined Real
Madrid, they always left at some point and he always remained as a starter. Why
is that? And how come did Real Madrid win everything with Benzema as their only
striker but didn't win anything with the Galacticos who were expected to win
everything there is to win?
The idea of the Galacticos first started
when the businessman Florentino Perez decided to run for the presidency of
Real Madrid, and as part of his campaign, he secretly agreed to pay 1.8 million
euros to Ballon D'or winner (world's best player) and FC Barcelona's star
player, Luis Figo, as part of an agreement which states that if Florentino
Perez becomes Real Madrid's president, he will pay Figo's release clause, and
bring him to Real Madrid. On the other hand, if Perez fails, Figo will simply
take the 1.8 million as if nothing happened.
Perez won the elections, and Luis Figo did
join Real Madrid as part of a very huge, but very controversial transfer that
saw Figo ditch Barcelona and move to their biggest rivals Real Madrid.
This was the beginning of the
"Galacticos", where Perez started following his plan to create a team
that combines all-star players of world football. Year by year he started
making transfers that no one would have dreamt of. He was the first to create a
team that involves 4 Ballon D'or winners: Ronaldo Nazario, Zinedine Zidane,
Luis Figo, and Michael Owen. He was also able to steal a huge name such as David
Beckham from Barcelona and make him join Real Madrid with the likes of Raul,
Roberto Carlos, Casillas, and more. It was the "ultimate dream team"
that any fan or even player would dream of.
But with all those big names, have they
really lived up to the expectations? Have they achieved something
extraordinary? Did they dominate World and European football? Why did Real
Madrid win everything possible with Benzema as their striker but not with 4
Ballon D'or winners upfront? We need to question some of the transfers made by
Perez at that time and the idea of the Galacticos as a whole. Why would you
need to buy 4 Ballon D'or players that all play upfront at the same time, isn't
one along with Raul enough for example? Why would you buy David Beckham when
you didn't even need him and you already have Luis Figo on the right side of
the pitch? Is it because of his popularity? Is an all-star team actually
successful or would it backfire just like the Galacticos did?
In 2014, a study by the Association for
Psychological Science called the "Too Much Talent Effect" studied the
correlation between the number of talented players in a team compared to the
team's performance & results. Before revealing the study, they conducted a
survey and 37% of respondents believed that a team's performance and results
will improve when you have more star players and big talents in the team.
However, after the study analyzed more than 400 football matches between 2010
and 2014 and hundreds of basketball games from 2002 to 2012, it revealed that
as the numbers of star players increase in a team, the team's performance and
results do improve "up to a certain amount", where if exceeded,
performance and results fall and the situation backfires.
To elaborate, in the NBA, in 2011, Miami
Heat were able to sign Chris Bosh and LeBron James while they already had
Dwayne Wade in the team. It was a "dream team" once again, but they
didn't manage to win the title that year despite the huge signings. A year
later, in 2012, both Chris Bosh and Dwayne Wade were injured, however, Miami
Heat managed to win the title. So they won it when 2 of the star players were
injured and didn't play, but weren't able to win when they all played together?
That's exactly what the study was able to reveal. The number of star players in
the team decreased in 2012, hence LeBron James was the main star player and one
of the main reasons that were able to guide the team to the title that year. This wouldn't have been possible with all 3-star players playing together. This
was due to a couple of reasons, where having too many stars in the team could
often create an environment of clash and competition rather than teamwork and
coordination, as each star player wants to stand out. This creates fierce
internal competition in the team thus affecting the whole team negatively and
worsening the performance and results of that team. Additionally, having too
many stars in one team can create be extremely demotivating for the rest of the
players who might feel left out, jealous, or even feel like they're being
controlled by them.
This clearly provides reasons as to why
the Galacticos and the idea of having an "all-star team" failed,
compared to Cristiano and Benzema's Real Madrid who were able to win everything
and clearly succeed despite not having the same names and starts as the
Galacticos had.
In the Cristiano era, Real Madrid had only one main star, and that was clearly Cristiano Ronaldo. He was the main man, he was the one scoring goals, winning individual prizes, and getting the most credit. But people often forget the role of someone such as Karim Benzema who was always the one who helped the main star shine. If we look back, why would Karim Benzema specifically remain as the sole striker, even when he had difficult times scoring, but the likes of Higuain for example who may have had better scoring ratios would leave the club? During the time of Benzema and Higuain at Real Madrid, statistics found that Benzema had the higher number of assists, higher ratio of chances created per game, and higher passing accuracy between both, while Higuain had higher shots on target and higher dribbles completed. Moreover, statistics by Opta revealed that Benzema is the player with the most assists to Cristiano Ronaldo in La Liga, and statistics by Sky Sports revealed that Benzema is the player who provided the most assists to Cristiano Ronaldo in his entire career. In 2018, Ronaldo's final season in Madrid, statistics showed that more than 30% of Benzema's assists that season were only to Cristiano.
Hence, would it be more beneficial to keep
Benzema who can create the play, provide assists, and allow the star player
(Cristiano) to better perform and shine, or keep Higuain who competes with
Cristiano and decreases his chances of shots, goals, and dribbles?
And indeed, Benzema stayed as the number
one choice while all other strikers left Real Madrid sooner or later. And since
Cristiano left, we can see now how Benzema became the star player, how he
stepped up and became the "goalscorer" instead of being the
"assist-er".
PSG provides another significant example
related to the failure of the Galacticos. They have been trying for years to
win the Champions League, buying huge talents and stars with hefty fees, such
as the likes of Neymar, Mbappe, Cavani, Ibrahimovic, Di Maria, Navas, and even
now with Messi and Ramos, but they are yet to win a Champions League. Does this
ring a bell?
Now we can only understand why Ronaldo Nazario, Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Michael Owen, Roberto Carlos, and more upfront all failed to achieve what Cristiano and Benzema achieved with Real Madrid on the pitch. Despite this, we can say that in the end, the only success the Galacticos were able to achieve was off the pitch. They helped boost Real Madrid in the business and marketing side of football, hence, the media, the fans, the sponsors, and surely, the brand of Real Madrid as a whole.
As always, there are exceptions to the
"Too Much Talent" theory, a clear example is FC Barcelona from
2015-2018 with talents and stars such as the MSN (Messi, Suarez, and Neymar) as
well as Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Busquets and more.
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