The signing of the century was consummated on a day like today, a July 4. Florentino Pérez closed in Turin the hiring of Zinedine Zidane, after agreeing with the CEO of Juventus, Luciano Moggi, a record price for the time: 12,000 million pesetas (72 million euros). Two days before there had been a first contact in Lugano, but the two parties were condemned to understand each other. Although the presentation of the French crack did not take place until the 9th, that July 4 became the great day of Florentino, given that he fulfilled his great electoral promise in the 2000 elections. By the way, on July 4, 2001, Alfredo Di Stéfano, the Honorary President of Real Madrid, was 75 years old. Figo had already arrived that same summer (snatched from Barça with a masterful maneuver), but as soon as he introduced the Portuguese, the white president warned that “Zidane will one day be a Real Madrid player.” The Turin summit took place at the home of Umberto Agnelli, the brother of the great Juve magnate, Gianni Agnelli. They were accompanied by Roberto Bettega, Luciano Moggi, Roberto Giraudo and Jorge Valdano, who accompanied Florentino from Spain on a private flight that left from Torrejón.
Moggi started the talks asking for 14,000 million pesetas. Crazy. Then they asked Makelele and Helguera in the batch for the possible deal. Well, no. Florentino was uncompromising and managed to make it only an economic agreement, reinforced by the personal “yes” that Zidane's own white president had, with the famous napkin that he gave him at a FIFA gala in Monte Carlo: “Would you like to sign for Madrid?” Zizou answered, surprisingly, in English: “Yes”. That was enough for Florentino to become strong and achieve the great strategic objective of the club. (sports and financially), closed at 12,000 million pesetas. Veccvhia Signora was also satisfied, because with that record amount of money she signed Buffon, Nedved and Vieri.
Zidane in Bora Bora
Zidane received the good news in Bora Bora, where he went on vacation with his wife Veronique (half Spanish being his parents from Almería, although she was born in the French town of Rodez) and their children. In Polynesia he could see his great dream come true. Zidane wanted to sign for Madrid since he was defeated by Juve in the final of the Champions League in Amsterdam, on the day of the Seventh and Mijatovic's goal. He fell in love with the greatness and weight of the white shirt. Finally, Zidane was presented on the 9th in the old Ice Pavilion of the now defunct Ciudad Deportiva, which already had an expiration date at the time. Florentino had signed an agreement with the City Council and the Community to requalify the sports city grounds, which allowed the club to enter 75,000 million pesetas. With that guaranteed guarantee, he faced the signing of Zidane (who finally opted for number 5) and a year later for Ronaldo Nazario (45 million euros at Inter) and the next year for Beckham (25 at Manchester United). It was the wonderful Galactic era. Never have so many Ballons d'Or met on the same team. It was nice while it lasted…