Manchester United and Real Madrid have had a relationship that could be considered as something quite special however in recent years, united fans have grown increasingly unhappy with Real Madrid because of the way they pip their stars, players such as David Beckham, Ruud Van Nistelrooy, Cristiano Ronaldo and potentially De Gea. However this isn’t a relationship that has developed recently it is a relationship that has been built over a long period of time, dating right the way back to the Matt Busby era.
When the Munich air disaster happened many teams came in to help United rebuild, but most notably Real Madrid made offerings that simply put were nothing short of incredible. The warm glowing relationship grew out of nothing more than a mutual respect between Matt Busby and the Real Madrid hierarchy; this respect was evident when following a game between the sides the Bernabeu outfit offered Busby a job but Sir Matt was determined to lead United to European glory so he turned it down.
Ten months after that the Munich air disaster occurred an incident that killed 8 players, 3 staff and 10 others. Sir Matts dream of concurring Europe looked over, Madrid later on went to win the Champions league that year and had dedicated the triumph to their friends in Manchester and even went as far as offering to give the trophy to the reds, although expectedly it was turned down but this was just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what Madrid were going to offer.
They offered Alfredo Di Stefano, the world’s best player at the time, however the football association blocked this move because he could potentially be taking a British players spot. Instead Madrid then helped in different ways, they made a memorial pennant with all the names of the fallen and named it “champions of honour” this was sold in Spain to raise money for United, there was also a range of friendlies set up between the teams, Madrid usually would charge £12,000 for these games, however they told United to pay what they could afford and United got the money made through ticket prices.
Following one of the games Madrid had set up an all expenses paid banquet for all the grieving families, which led the president to say that Busby “wasn’t only the bravest man, but the greatest man I have ever met in football”. Then in 1968 the inevitable happened the semi final of the European cup Manchester United vs Real Madrid, United won and then went on to achieve European glory and fulfil the dream of Sir Matt. Bernabeu said after the game “if it had to be anyone, then I’m glad it was them”
Since these years though the relationship has turned sour with Sir Alex Ferguson calling describing the way they went about signing Cristiano Ronaldo as Mob-like and said he wouldn’t sell a virus. Even with these strong words in mind, Manchester United and Real Madrid will always have a special connection through the togetherness and respect they showed one another during Uniteds most troubled times.
Comments.
Loading comments…