Ramón Calderón period

On July 2, 2006 Ramón Calderón was elected as club president and subsequently appointed Fabio Capello as the new coach and Predrag Mijatovic as the new sporting director. As new manager of Real Madrid, Capello signed the World Cup winning captain Fabio Cannavaro and Emerson, both from embattled Juventus, for a total sum of €23 m; Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United for €15 m; Mahamadou Diarra from Lyon for €26 m and on a last minute trade loan - José Antonio Reyes. Ramon failed, however, to sign A.C. Milan star Kaká, Arsenal star Cesc Fabregas and Chelsea star Arjen Robben as was promised by the new president. During the January transfer window, he has managed to sign Fluminense left back Marcelo (€6.5 m), River Plate forward Gonzalo Higuaín (€13 m) and Boca Juniors midfielder Fernando Gago (€18 m).

On January 16, 2007, Calderón made some very unfortunate comments about the behavior of some players in the squad and the Santiago Bernabeu fans, which has put the club in a delicate situation.[2] One of the players that Calderón criticised was David Beckham, who, in January 2007, agreed a deal to play for LA Galaxy at the end of that season. Among others to criticise Beckham was manager Fabio Capello, who, at the time, vowed never to select Beckham for the team again, although he later withdrew his words. At the end of January Ronaldo left the club for 7.5 million euros for AC Milan. On February 9 2007, Capello allowed Beckham back onto Real's starting 11 in an away match against Real Sociedad, Beckham played well and scored the equalizing goal in the match (Real Madrid won the match 2-1). On February 24 2007, the Madrid derby between Atlético Madrid and Real Madrid at the Vicente Calderón Stadium was a 1-1 draw. The scorers were Fernando Torres for Atlético, and Gonzalo Higuain for Real. The Madrid derby is seen as one of the most fiercely contested matches in the Spanish football calendar.

On March 7, 2007 Real Madrid failed to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League due to Bayern Munich's strong home performance. Despite winning the home leg 3-2, they lost 2-1 in Germany and were eliminated on an away goals tiebreaker.

On March 10, 2007 Real Madrid contested the Clasico against Barcelona at the Camp Nou. Real Madrid took the lead 3 times after 2 goals from Ruud van Nistelrooy and one from Sergio Ramos but were pegged back by a hat-trick from Lionel Messi. Despite the sending off of Oleguer, the Clasico ended 3-3.

Real Madrid managed to put their European disappointments behind them and treated their last 12 league games as "cup finals". Real Madrid managed to find their form consistently for the first time all season as they managed to win seven out their first eight "cup finals", including a 2-1 home win over Valencia on April 21 2007 and another 3-2 home win over Sevilla on May 6 2007. Calderon then went on to say that if the team keep up their great play, he is confident Real Madrid will win the league title and end their four year wait for a major trophy on June 17. Calderon is also unsure if Capello will stay because he has, after all, done well as manager for the club. Calderon will soon talk with Capello about his future in the club.

On May 12, 2007, despite not having Robinho and Beckham on the pitch (due to separate yellow cards given in the previous match against FC Sevilla) Real Madrid took over first place in the La Liga for the first time all season by defeating Espanyol 4-3, coming back from 1-3 first half deficit. Los Blancos were able to avoid a 3-3 draw thanks to a 89th minute goal by Gonzalo Higuaín.

The Sunday after Real won their epic battle with Espanyol, Barca dropped points with a 1-1 draw to struggling Real Betis. By virtue of their superior head to head record, Madrid sat at the top of La Liga, with four crucial 'finals' left to play.

The following Sunday, Real managed to beat Recreativo 3-2 away as the Recreativo famously put out a shocking 3-0 win over Real at the Bernabeu eariler during the season. With the score tied at 2-2, Madrid looked set return the lead back to bitter rivals Barcelona until Roberto Carlos thumped in the winner right before death during injury time to ensure Real remain in the driver seat for at least another week and also leaving them with just three 'finals' left to play. The remaining three are Deportivo La Coruña, Real Zaragoza and Mallorca.

On 26th May 2007, Real Madrid produced yet again, another excellent display to dispatch Deportivo 3-1 at the Bernabeu. This victory will make it six wins in a row for Madrid. Goals from Sergio Ramos, Skipper Raul and Ruud Van Nistelrooy secured the win. It also leaves Real with only two 'finals' left to play and with hopes and morale reaching a high point in the Real dressing room, Capello and Calderon believes that Real are just few steps away from securing the league title. Real will play their last two games after the international break.

Transfers and transfer rumors under Capello have been big, with the names of Kaka, Franck Ribery, Christoph Metzelder, Carlos Tevez, Frank Lampard, Javier Saviola, Gabriel Heinze, and Francesc Fabregas being linked with moves to EL Bernabeu. Recently, Christoph Metzelder signed a deal to bring him to Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund.