For much of the 1990s, Real Madrid played second only to Barcelona in La Liga, with Cruyff's "Dream Team" and later Van Gaal's Barcelona dominating the domestic scene.
During that time, Real Madrid won the Champions League in 1998 and repeated the feat in 2000, ending a three-decade losing run in European competition, but the team desperately needed new strength.
Florentino has promised to overhaul this club, with one of his campaign manifestos being to bring the best players in the world to the Bernabeu every season.
Figo arrived at Real Madrid in the summer of 2000 from arch-rivals Barcelona for a then-record fee of 10 billion pesetas (62 million euros), Florentino's first purchase. Figo's acquisition was a solid deal and Real Madrid won their first La Liga title in four years that season.
Real Madrid then continued their aggressive pursuit of the best players in the world when they signed Zinedine Zidane from Juventus for another world record sum: 150 billion lire (€77.5 million).
The club won their ninth Champions League title that season, with the French star scoring a goal in the final against Leverkusen to justify Florentino's policy of extravagance.
The season after that, the club added another globally acclaimed world superstar to its roster - the alien Cristiano Ronaldo, who Big Lo signed from Inter Milan for 46 million euros. In his debut season at Real Madrid, he scored 23 goals and helped the team win their 29th La Liga title.
Beckham joined from Manchester United in 2003, following in the footsteps of Big Law. While Beckham's talent level may not match that of Figo, Zinedine Zidane or Big Law, he is a former European Champion and England captain, and a self-made money-sucking buff and business magnate, who has appeal all over the world, as Florentino mentioned when he brought in the midfielder.
Next to arrive at the Bernabeu was another Englishman, Owen, who joined Real Madrid from Liverpool in 2005. Robinho and Ramos also joined the team in 2005 and they were probably the last of the first Galacticos, with Florentino resigning in 2006.
In the first decade of the 21st century, the term Galacticos eventually became synonymous with Real Madrid as a whole, alongside superstars such as Robert Carlos and McManaman, as well as Raul and Guti in the youth teams.
