And so Ramón Calderón finally gets his man. What a shame he is no longer president of Real Madrid. In all probability it will now be his nemesis, Florentino Pérez, plotting a return in June's presidential elections, who enjoys the fruits of his labour. If, that is, Sir Alex Ferguson agrees to the sale of Cristiano Ronaldo. The supreme irony of Calderón's presidency is confirmed once more; the man for whom he felt most fear and loathing is the man he has most served.
Calderón's 2½-year spell at the Bernabéu has been packed with comedy moments, from his detention in New York after officials at JFK mistook him for a Mexican bandit called Ramos Calderón to the night he invited Nicolas Cage to meet the players only to discover it wasn't Nicolas Cage at all. And like all great comedy, so much of it is about timing. The former president may not see the funny side, but others are giggling up their sleeves.
Calderón was forced out in January after allegations he had rigged the members' assembly. The sting was masterfully handled by the newspaper Marca, fresh evidence emerging each day, Calderón's next move always brilliantly anticipated. Sacrificial heads rolled but it was not enough to rescue the president. "Only cowards and the guilty resign," Calderón announced. Less than 24 hours later, he resigned.
The sting pushed him over the edge but he had stood at the precipice from the start. With postal votes suspended because of suspicions of fraud, Calderón won the 2006 election with only 10,000 votes in an electorate of over 80,000. He won them on the back of promising to sign Cesc Fábregas, Kaka and Arjen Robben. The promise, like so many he made, was broken. Only Robben arrived – and he pitched up a year late.
By then, Calderón was publicly chasing Ronaldo. It could hardly have been less dignified if he had done so in fast-forward to the theme from Benny Hill. Two summers passed. At the end of the first, Ronaldo signed an Old Trafford contract extension; at the end of the second, Ferguson blocked his exit. Out-manoeuvred, Calderón's failure made him look like a liar or just plain incompetent. Or both.
Calderón never got the credibility and gravitas he craved. The signing of Ronaldo would have provided it but it is too late now. Just as Pérez, the architect of the galácticos project, was defined by the players he signed, so Calderón became defined by the players he did not. "My tombstone will read: here lies the man who did not sign Kaka," he said. When Klaas-Jan Huntelaar was unveiled in January, fans chanted: "Where is Ronaldo?" Already signed and sealed, it now seems. But by the time he arrives, if he does, Calderón will be long gone. Even if he stands this summer, as he has threatened to do, he will not win.
When he was forced to resign Calderón demonstrated the paranoia that gripped him from the start by declaring it "a victory for evilness". The "evil" in question was Pérez, the man who, despite his discreet silence, supporters are now begging to return, the disastrous end to his reign forgotten.
Pérez won nothing in three years and deserted a sinking ship but he has been accidentally rehabilitated by the man who followed him – the president who did not deliver Kaka, Faábregas or Ronaldo. At least not until it was too late for him. Calderón has handed him back the presidency on a plate. With great timing, he may well have handed him his first galáctico too.
