What trophies had Peak Galacticos Chaos era Madrid won?

As you sow so shall you reap is an age old saying which for most parts in almost all walks of life holds true. But in the case does not entirely hold true as a matter of it is more of a hit and miss experience up until now considering their entire history of going all guns blazing and signing a whole roster of superstars one after the other whether it be the 60s or 60 years later in present day. 

More often than not the success of these signings is judged solely on one primary criteria, how many trophies these stars are able to bring to the club, increase the prestige market value, brand image of the club through their on and off the field contributions. While off the field metrics includes a whole host of factors outside the purview of on field performances. 

Trophies are one common metric that affects both in equal measure and at least on a surface level is a good indicator of where the club is. At a club like Madrid especially during the peak Galactico era, winning trophies was all that ever mattered. As that was their whole brand which had a huge impact on the clubs finances  their off the field image and subsequently their on the field dynamics and transfer policies especially when the concept of FFP did not exist yet.

However the focus on shiny flashy superstar players meant that the balance of the team went for a toss. The teams were too heavy on attack and significantly weaker in all other areas of the pitch which had a huge bearing on the results. Even the attacking talents were not able to be at their best in this situation. When such things happens it ends up creating a rift as star power and backing of the higher ups turns the power dynamics and makes the players more powerful than the manager. The coach or manager ends up losing the plot playing players out of position and making the team weaker in the process instead. 

For example, to adjust both Luis Figo and Beckham into the same line up. Despite both being right sided attackers, Beckham for the most part was either forced to play as a CDM or Figo had to play on the left messing up the whole team dynamics purely for the sake of maintaining the Galacticos image alive. 

When the above mentioned tale is ingrained in your culture it ends up making the environment more unstable where you are just stacking up superstars in a team and not building teams that complement those superstars, plays as a team and gives superstar like results that their talent warrants.

This results in not winning anything for three straight seasons, but not all is doom and gloom, they did end up getting positives out of it. While on the outside, the list of achievement might seem pretty decent and out of context they actually are. But when one puts everything into perspective and looks at the bigger picture, it leaves so much more to be desired. It could have been much more if x..y..z could have been done differently in hindsight.

The final trophy hall of the first and the most (in)famous Peak Galacticos era is as follows

First galáctico era

• La Liga:
• Winners (3): 2000–01, 2002–03, 2006-07
  • Runners-up (2): 2004–05, 2005–06
• Copa del Rey:
  • Runners-up (2): 2001–02, 2003–04
• Supercopa de España:
  • Winners (2): 2001, 2003
• UEFA Champions League:
  • Winners (1): 2001–02
• UEFA Super Cup:
  • Winners (1): 2002
  • Runners-up (1): 2000
• Intercontinental Cup:
  • Winners (1): 2002
  • Runners-up (1): 2000

They seem to have learned their lesson and as of present day, they have both the trophies to show for their efforts, their finances are healthier than ever. They can make Galacticos like signing which are both readymade as well as future proof which can fit the manager like a glove at any given point. Thanks to smart management of resources which had resulted in a trophy hall far more impressive than the one listed above with much greater success. Guess hindsight was the biggest trophy from this first era of Galacticos.

Cover Credits - UEFA.com