Real Madrid's 2006/07 La Liga Winners: Where Are They Now, a Decade On?
Winning La Liga hasn't happened as often for Real Madrid as the club would expect over the past few years, but just after the turn of the century, Los Blancos won the title four times in eight seasons—and then just once in the eight since.
A decade ago come the end of the current campaign, supporters and players alike were celebrating wildly as they clinched what would be the first of back-to-back league triumphs, finishing top in the 2006/07 season by virtue of head-to-head results against Barcelona, as the rivals finished level on 76 points.
It racked up a milestone event: a 30th La Liga title win, the first team (and still the only team) to reach that number.
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The faces on the pitch have changed somewhat since then, but under Zinedine Zidane and Co., fans will hope that the success of 10 years ago can be replicated come May. Indeed, some of the supporters may still be watching their side from the same stadium seats or long-distance viewing spots as the ones from which they celebrated the 2006/07 success—but what has become of the key players from that side?
Manager: Fabio Capello
The boss who led Madrid to the championship was Fabio Capello, the Italian legend who was in his second spell with the club—but winning the title wasn't enough to keep him in the job. Capello was sacked a month after the end of the season and went on to manage England soon afterward, his first national-team job.
He spent nearly four years there, but it was an unsuccessful spell—a dismal showing at the 2010 World Cup and a resignation shortly before Euro 2012.
Since then, Capello has also been manager of the Russia national side, but he fared equally poorly there, going out at the group stage of 2014 World Cup and being sacked midway through qualification for Euro 2016. Capello has been out of work for 16 months since, and winning the title at Madrid in '07 remains his last act at club level.
Goalkeeper: Iker Casillas
The No. 1 goalkeeper from the title-winning season needs no introduction; Casillas remains a club legend of Real Madrid, even if his final campaigns at the Santiago Bernabeu were tainted by errors and time spent on the substitutes' bench.
Having won everything there was to win with Real—and Spain at international level—Casillas moved to FC Porto two years ago and remains with the Primeira Liga outfit now. His team finished third in the table last term and are five points off the pace already this year.
Right-back: Sergio Ramos
If Casillas needed no introduction, Sergio Ramos is even more familiar—he's the current captain of Real Madrid.
At the time, he was still featuring on the right side of defence rather more than in the centre, but Ramos has since gravitated to a commanding role as part of the team's spine. He lifted the UEFA Champions League less than six months ago.
Centre-back: Ivan Helguera
A player's career is reasonably short, all things considered, so it won't come as a surprise to learn there are a few no longer in the game.
Ivan Helguera is the first; the Spanish defender played an important role in winning the title, particularly during the second half of the season, yet he retired less than two years later. Like Capello, winning the league wasn't enough to see him remain at Madrid, and the club sold him to Valencia that summer.
A single full campaign later, Helguera was released from Los Che and ended his time as a player.
Now, he works as an analyst with Radio Estadio in Spain and spends time posting positive messages surrounding Spanish sportspeople on Twitter.
Centre-back: Fabio Cannavaro
Legendary Italian defender Cannavaro returned to Juventus from Madrid in 2009 and finished up his playing career in 2011 with Al-Ahli in Dubai. Following his retirement, Cannavaro worked in an ambassadorial role for the club before taking over as first-team head coach.
For the past two years—aside from a brief four-month stint in Saudi Arabia—Cannavaro has been in China, managing first Guangzhou Evergrande and now Tianjin Quanjian.
With Tianjin, he won the China League One title at the end of October 2017, sealing promotion to the riches of the Chinese Super League for next season. Cannavaro is the only active manager from the Real Madrid 2006/07 side.
Left-back: Roberto Carlos
Brazilian dynamo Roberto Carlos has been a manager since retiring, but with no great success or continuity as yet. The left-back played for another four years after leaving Madrid, with his final match for the club having been the title-winning one in 2007.
A chaotic time at Anzhi Makhachkala in Russia saw "Bobby Charles" be player, player-coach and a sporting director within a short period of time, but it was in Turkey thereafter where he spent the longest time in charge of a side—18 months as boss of Sivasspor.
Most recently, Roberto Carlos featured as player-manager in the Indian Super League in 2015, and he now works as a club ambassador for Real Madrid, covering the Asia and Pacific region, per EFE (h/t Marca).
Midfield: Mahamadou Diarra
Controlling midfielder Mahamadou Diarra played a big part in Capello's team, but injuries hit him hard soon afterward. After leaving Madrid in 2011, Diarra played for both Monaco and Fulham, but fitness issues were ongoing.
Now aged 35, Diarra has not officially retired and has been training with Brentford this season to regain fitness after another long-term injury, but he has not played for a club for two years.
Midfield: Emerson
Still also just about going on the career trail is Brazilian midfielder Emerson, though he is well down the league ladder at 40 years of age, playing last year for Miami Dade FC in the United States. This isn't an MLS or even NASL side, instead competing in a relatively new minor league, the American Premier Soccer League (APSL).
Emerson had been retired, since 2009 due to injury, before which he had been playing in his home country with Santos.
Midfield: Guti
Guti remained at Real Madrid for a couple more seasons but eventually age and expenditure pushed him out the door, and he moved to Besiktas until retiring in 2012.
In the summer, a revamp of Real Madrid's youth-team head coaches saw Santiago Solari promoted to be Castilla boss and an opening appear at Juvenil A as a result—Guti took the job. Working at La Fabrica, Guti told Mundo Deportivo (in Spanish) he was looking forward to his year and that the change from player to coach was a huge one.
Guti leads his young team in the UEFA Youth League, where Real Madrid's under-19s are top of their group.
Midfield: David Beckham
A world-renowned brand as much as a successful player, David Beckham played for LA Galaxy, AC Milan and Paris Saint-Germain after leaving Real Madrid and retired in 2013.
One year later, Beckham took up an option to buy a franchise in MLS, and he will own a side in Miami...once a new stadium has been built for it. Elsewhere, Beckham is prevalent in the social media world and with his advertising contracts.
Forward: Jose Antonio Reyes
Aged 33 and still going strong in La Liga, Jose Reyes scored twice on the final day of the season in 2006/07 to beat Mallorca and help Madrid claim the title.
Thereafter, he played for Atletico Madrid the next year until 2012, and then for Sevilla until the end of the 2015/16 season—winning the UEFA Europa League along the way—before being released upon expiry of his contract.
Reyes signed a two-year contract with Espanyol over the summer and has played seven times this season, mainly off the bench.
Forward: Robinho
Brazilian attacker Robinho won back-to-back titles with Madrid before moving on for an ill-fated spell with Manchester City at the beginning of their ascent to the top table of European football. Via spells with AC Milan, Guangzhou Evergrande and his first club, Santos, Robinho is now back in Brazilian football with Atletico Mineiro.
The 32-year-old is in fact the top scorer in the 2016 Serie A Campeonato, netting 12 goals so far and helping his side up to fourth place with five matches to play.
Forward: Gonzalo Higuain
The most high-profile current player from the 2006/07 squad, Gonzalo Higuain has gone on from his Madrid days to become a star in Serie A with Napoli, reach a World Cup final and two Copa America finals with Argentina and, in the summer just past, seal an astonishing €90 million move to Juventus.
A record fee in Italian football, Higuain has seven goals in seven Serie A starts this term, and his side are top of the table.
Forward: Ruud van Nistelrooy
Dutch striker Ruud van Nistelrooy top-scored with 31 goals in 37 games in La Liga when Madrid lifted the trophy in 2006/07, but that was the final great campaign for one of Europe's best predators of the decade.
Injuries ruined his mobility and continuity, and after two more stop-start years, he moved to Hamburg. A final season back in La Liga, with Malaga, brought Van Nistelrooy to his retirement in 2012.
Having since worked as a television analyst, the ex-Manchester United star was briefly the assistant manager for the Dutch national side, managed by Danny Blind, and at the start of this season, he switched to club football to work with the youth team of former club PSV Eindhoven.
Forward: Raul
Maybe the most famous of them all in the pre-social media era, Raul is a club legend, an ambassador for the sport and a hero for the fans.
He left Real Madrid in 2010 and, via Schalke and Al-Sadd, was most recently playing in the NASL for New York Cosmos. Fittingly, Raul's last game saw he and his side win the Soccer Bowl in 2015.
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