The capture of the 28-year-old midfielder was the fourth major signing that Real have pulled off under the leadership of Perez.

Rather like Joan Laporta had earlier this summer pledged to try to sign Beckham to try to win the Barcelona presidency, so back in 2000 Perez campaigned for the Real presidency on the promise that he would then sign Luis Figo.

Perez duly won and, weeks later, Figo moved from the Camp Nou to the Santiago Bernabeu for around £37 million.

Since that transfer in the summer of 2000, Perez, along with wily coach Vicente del Bosque, has bought the mercurial Frenchman Zinedine Zidane (in 2001) and the brilliant Brazilian World Player of the Year Ronaldo (2002), meaning that Beckham's move is the fourth major coup for the club in four years.

These players, combined with Raul, Roberto Carlos and Hierro who were all at Madrid before Perez arrived, has lead to the current galaxy of stars being called the Florenteam...

TheFA.com looks a little closer at some of the big moves Real have been involved in over the past few years...

1999 - French striker Nicolas Anelka leaves Premiership side Arsenal to join Real for a whopping £23.5 million. However, though he won the Champions League with Madrid, he never really fulfilled his potential or settled properly and eventually he left to rejoin Paris St Germain a year later for £20 million. 

2000 - Portuguese star Luis Figo stuns Spanish football by leaving Barcelona for Real for a then world-record fee of £37 million. The midfielder had a brilliant first season well and he was named FIFA World Footballer of the Year in 2001. Figo was president Florentino Perez's first major signing, and he would go on to sign more stars to build the greatest collection of talent in world football today.

2001 - Real shatter the world transfer record once again by bringing French midfield maestro Zinedine Zidane to the club for £45.7 million from Juventus. His skills have dazzled the hard-to-please Bernabeu faithful, with Real winning their ninth European Cup by beating Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow - Zidane's wonderful volley clinching the match.

2002 - Brazilian striker Ronaldo joins Madrid for £28.5 million after helping his national side to World Cup glory. After a shaky start, and still without full fitness, Ronaldo has begun to find the back of the net on a regular basis. So far this season, he has 21 league goals and is Real's leading scorer.

2003 - Months of speculation are ended when Manchester United and England star David Beckham agrees to join the Spanish giants for around £25million.

Beckham will have a medical at the Bernabeu on 1 July and then, should everything go according to plan, he will sign for the nine times European champions.

by James Wright