Real Madrid haven’t gone without their fair share of mistakes in the past. They’ve sold players they should’ve kept and kept players they should’ve sold on many occasions, and it continues to happen to this date. There are a bunch of players that do not deserve to play for Real Madrid, and yet, they play pretty regularly.
There are a lot of mistakes made, but hey, the club is run by humans, so it’s expected. But here, I look at the three most recent transfer-related mistakes that cost Real Madrid a Champions League title, or two. I know some of you may go straight to the Claude Makelele example, but I am here to talk about the more recent ones.
1) Selling Cristiano Ronaldo in 2018
This was pretty obvious, wasn’t it?
I had to include this guy on the list. Ronaldo was one of the biggest reasons why Real Madrid won three Champions League titles in a row, and four in five years. It’s absolutely mental how big of a leap he took in big games, against tough opponents.
The way in which he’d take matters onto his own hands, score a hat-trick past the best goalkeepers in the world at will is something my big head would never be able to understand. There is simply not a better big game player to ever exist. Simple as that.
Real Madrid honestly, if they had sold someone like Gareth Bale instead of Ronaldo and instead build the team around him a little bit more, perhaps for another year, then maybe we would’ve seen them lift another Champions League trophy. Goes for both parties, since Ronaldo hasn’t won one since leaving either.
The team could’ve used a leader and goalscorer like Ronaldo against Ajax, and even though the whole team sort of went through a pretty dark era in the 2018-19 season, the fact of the matter is, Ronaldo being there would’ve definitely made things a lot better, maybe even encourage players like Modric to get back into their top form. They needed a leader by example, something that Gareth Bale wasn’t able to become, and for that reason, Ronaldo staying around for a couple more years would’ve resulted in a Champions League title.