After two years in France, he joined Barcelona as they began trying to match the glamour of fierce rivals Real Madrid's "Galacticos".

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Perez looks set to repeat his "Los Galacticos" recruitment policy of last term, based on attracting the world's biggest and most marketable stars.

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In what became known as the "Galacticos era", Perez signed a number of multi-million dollar superstars that included Luis Figo, David Beckham and Zinedine Zidane.

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The top players Perez brought in through this period sparked the term "galacticos", and from 2000 onwards Madrid continued to invest in a new galactico each year.

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That deal was sealed by the ambition of returning Real president Florentino Perez, who previously led the Spanish club from 2000 to 2006 - during the famous galacticos era.

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If the club are going to bring in new faces it is expected that they will need to finance the moves by off-loading at least one of their much-heralded Galacticos.

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While Real Madrid spent more than 200 million euro on their new host of new Galacticos this summer, players at Shamrock Rovers were still coming to terms with having a home ground.

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Williams epitomises the big-spending Ospreys' enormous ambitions and the 31-year-old winger has sent a tub-thumping message to his fellow "galacticos" at the Liberty Stadium on the eve of the new Magners League season.

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For all the talk of a new Galacticos team at Madrid, what they really have now, which they have not had for a while, is an extraordinarily successful manager (and arguably one player who makes the difference between wining and losing in Cristiano Ronaldo).

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