Ivan Helguera lifts lid on 2003 controversy between players, Del Bosque, Florentino Perez

Former Real Madrid defender Ivan Helguera revealed that there was some tension between Real Madrid president Florentino Perez and coach Vicente Del Bosque back in 2003. Ivan Helguera, while speaking to Mister Chil on Instagram, discussed the controversy which surrounded Real Madrid's players, Florentino Perez, and Vicente Del Bosque in 2003. Real Madrid were not interested in extending Vicente Del Bosque's contract even after Los Blancos claimed the 2002-03 LaLiga title. The former coach was seen as a fan favourite and reportedly had the support of the players. However, he was replaced by Carlos Queiroz the following season.

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Real Madrid controversy: Florentino Perez wanted to get rid of Del Bosque

“Yes, something happened. They wanted to get rid of Del Bosque and we wanted him to stay. We just didn’t like the way it has handled, they told us and the thing exploded. The president didn’t want to celebrate the title with us, we had to go to the City Hall and most players didn’t want to be there if Del Bosque wasn’t there. It was hard to enjoy dinner. We went to the City Hall even though we initially agreed not to, we changed our mind but two players didn’t find out and they were fined. The season ended with Del Bosque leaving. We went on vacation without knowing what had happened,” stated Helguera.

“It was one of the keys behind that, yes. Everything changed so much, we as captains didn’t know who to pay attention to, there was a conflict of interests there. Plenty of good players were signed, Makelele left and nobody wanted him to leave. Flavio was a great player but didn’t reach his potential here, while Makelele was just one of our columns and helped us defensively quite a lot,” added the former Real Madrid defender.

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Real Madrid controversy: Players were not happy with Florentino Perez' decision

Ivan Helguera stated that the entire team was unhappy with Real Madrid's decision of sacking the manager. The departure of Del Bosque had a massive impact on the players, Helguera revealed. Del Bosque’s exit was later termed as the cornerstone for the failure of Real Madrid's Galactico era post 2003.

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