Real Madrid's original Galacticos: Where are they now?

Real Madrid’s original Galacticos were a set of players unlike any other.

The term Galacticos is now a word famous in the world of football to describe either a superstar signing or a transfer for an exorbitant price. It is more commonly used for every big signing Real Madrid makes during transfer windows and to find its origin, we need to go back to the year 2000 when Florentino Perez became the club president for the first time.

Perez ushered in the first Galacticos era during his reign between 2000 and 2006. Galactico in Spanish implies superstars, thereby referring to the top players in the world signed by Madrid. Perez brought in a second wave of Galacticos during his second spell that began in 2009 and is still going strong. Players such as Kaka from AC Milan, Cristiano Ronaldo from Manchester United, Karim Benzema from Lyon, Gareth Bale from Tottenham and so on.

While Perez looks set to sign Kylian Mbappe as the next Galactico, we find out what the original Galacticos are up to currently.

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#1 Luis Figo

Luis Figo alone defined the rivalry between Barcelona and Real Madrid in the early 2000s with his transfer

One of the greatest players of his generation, Luis Figo became the first Galactico when signed for Madrid from arch-rivals Barcelona in 2000. It was one of the shock transfers at the time and it heralded the beginning of the Galacticos. He won the La Liga and the Champions League with Madrid before finishing his playing career at Inter Milan in 2009.

One of the best attacking players to play the game, Figo is currently popularising football in India through the futsal route as he is the head of the Premier Futsal League in the Asian country. He had also put his name up previously to contest for the position of FIFA president in 2015, before dropping out eventually. He has recently stated that he will enter coaching one day, but not at the moment while he is busy being the face of futsal in India.