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Is Chelsea the Real Madrid of the Premier League?

What does Chelsea’s pursuit of Haaland and promotion of Mason Mount tell us about the radically changing culture at Chelsea F.C?

Ryan Rothon
8 min readMar 24, 2021

There is one Spanish defender whose name has come to define the Florentino Pérez era at Real Madrid.

Nope, not Hiero and definitely not Sergio Ramos.

The Galactico I speak of is none other than Francisco Pavón.

Even the most ardent Madridista will struggle to remember Pavón.

While his rise from the Madrid academy to the first team and subsequent Champions league and la-Liga triumphs are nothing to be scoffed at, they don’t exactly make Mr. Pavón the automatic choice for most influential defender under Pérez.

His claim to the title comes not from his on-field exploits but rather from a simple quote by Florentino Pérez.

When asked how he envisioned the Real Madrid team to look during his presidency, Pérez replied that he promised to build a team of ‘Zidanes y Pavones.’

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Ryan Rothon
Ryan Rothon

Written by Ryan Rothon

I write about all things Sports and Business :)

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