Ramon Calderon, who media reports say stepped down as Real Madrid president following allegations that he rigged the club's last general assembly, reached the helm of the club amid unfulfilled promises to recruit big name players. He was elected president of the world's richest football club for a four-year mandate in July 2006, beating his rival Juan Palacios by just 246 votes.
His time at the helm of the defending Spanish champions has been marked by controversies such as accusations that he used the club's credit cards for personal purchases and outspoken criticisms of key players. In January 2007 he apologised after he said England's David Beckham was leaving the club to join L.A. Galaxy in the US "to be half a film star" and attacked the rest of the squad, saying "they all think they are superstars".
"I want to apologise a thousand times to anyone that might have been offended. But I want people to know that everything I've done since I got here has been for the good of the club," he told Real Madrid television at the time. The comments to a student conference at a university were recorded without his knowledge and later aired on national radio, prompting an outcry from supporters.
Of the three big names who he promised to sign when he took the reins of the club - AC Milan midfielder Kaka, Arsenal midfielder Cesc Fabregas and Arjen Robben - only the latter joined Real from Chelsea in August 2007. More recently Calderon disappointed many fans over the summer of 2008 when his high-profile bid to recruit Manchester United's Portuguese winger Cristiano Ronaldo, freshly named FIFA World Footballer of the Year, ended in failure.
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