“Zidanes y Pavones”, the slogan of the galactic Real Madrid of the early 21st century
Zidanes y Pavones. This is how Real Madrid launched a marketing campaign led by Florentino Pérez at the beginning of the 21st century. The white club wanted to make the rest of the world see its policy of mixing great cracks in what is known as ‘The Galacticos team‘ with young pearls from the Madrid quarry. But nevertheless, this policy was too much for the latter to whom this slogan, benefited very little.
The origin of Zidanes and Pavones
The slogan was based on Zinedine Zidane, the representative of the Real Madrid galacticos of the time (the Figo, Beckham and Ronaldo) and in Paco Pavon, central of the Madrid quarry who quickly established himself in the white first team and who represented the arrival of young talents to the first team.
The idea was to sign a 'supercrack’ world championship each year that he joined the existing roster and complete the squad with the best youngsters from the lower ranks of each season. But nevertheless, not all ‘pavones‘ from that time they were lucky. Even his own Paco Pavon later ended up transferred to Real Zaragoza in 2007 after their participation went from more to much less in the 5 years he was in the first Real Madrid squad.
The ‘Pavones’ who failed to settle in Real Madrid
Apart from the player who gave the name to the slogan, this was from some of the ‘Pavones’ :
Oscar Miñambres
The injuries cut the race very young, so much so that he had to withdraw with just 26 years and ended up setting up a tobacconist and winning a teaching position in Madrid.
Raul Bravo
He became international with Spain and played the Eurocup 2004 despite being a substitute. Then his performance dropped and he was signing for teams. Not long ago he was involved in an issue with justice.
Ruben Gonzalez
The central blond completed a good career in First in teams like Osasuna, Racing, Mallorca, Zaragoza, Albacete or Celta and also in several foreign teams. But many remember the Galician for his tears on the Pizjuán bench after he was changed after playing a disastrous match as a Real Madrid player.
Valdo
The Leonese winger with Cape Verdean origin was another of the players who made his debut as a Real Madrid player at the time of Zidanes and Pavones, but who did not settle in the first team.. He continued his career in teams like Osasuna, Espanyol and Levante. With the granota team he possibly lived the best years of his career.
Javier Portillo
The best example of the motto. A footballer who came rolling through the door with decisive goals but ended up going from more to less as a madrisita. Later he lived a long career in many teams such as Brujas and Fiorentina abroad and in Spain in clubs such as Osasuna, The palms, Nastic and Hercules. In the latter he finished his career as a player and started it as the sports director of the Alicante club. He also married the owner's daughter. One of the examples of ‘players who were going to star but did not get it‘.
Other ‘Pavones’ who poked their heads around that time
Javier Balboa, Antonio Nuñez, Javi garcia, Tote, Alvaro Mejia, Juanfran Torres and Carlos Sánchez.
