Real Madrid president has responded angrily to the claim by Manchester United manager, Sir Alex Ferguson, that the Spanish club benefitted from the patronage of former dicator of Spain, General Franco.
Commenting on Real’s summer-long pursuit of Cristiano Ronaldo, Ferguson said: “What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain.”
Mention of Franco angered the Real hierarchy and prompted a furious response from Calderon.
“What made it really obscene was that Madrid, as General Franco’s club, had a history of being able to get whoever and whatever they wanted, before democracy came to Spain,” Calderon told Marca.
“I’m not going to waste any time answering him, I admire his record, but he is getting old.
Marca were also unhappy as they appeared to use Ferguson’s working class roots to explain why he had chosen to make a statement about Real’s history.
On the front page of Thursday’s edition, the newspaper featured a five-picture mock up of Ferguson morphing into Franco above the headline “Ferguson Senile”.
The paper stated inside that the United boss was saying things and doing things at Old Trafford that were influenced by his age.
