Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon had to eat his words after the club's players were up in arms following careless remarks made by Calderon during his a visit to university students, which was broadcasted by national radio station Cadena COPE. 

Clearly unhappy at the way his team is performing, Calderon had suggested that Madrid's players displayed "egotism and vanity" and thought themselves to be superstars. Calderon made clear his opinion about the Beckham transfer saga, terming the former England captain as an "average cinema actor living in Hollywood."

"The proof that our technical staff was correct not to retain him has been borne out by every other technical staff in the world not wanting him even though he was out of contract," Calderon had said. He also singled out midfielder Jose Maria Gutierrez saying that he had failed to live up to his potential.

However this has not gone well with the club's players and they had showdown talks with Calderon. The president was forced to apologize to the players and said that his words "in no way corresponded to his thoughts or his real sentiments."

Club captain Raul defended his teammates and asked the president to behave in a more mature manner. In a news conference, Raul said, "The president is the president and can say what he wants, but what he said upset many people and was not a wise thing to do. A club with the history and tradition of Real Madrid needs to behave differently. The image that has been given in recent weeks isn't the right one. Mutual respect needs to be shown by everyone."

Meanwhile the Spanish international had some praise for both Beckham and Ronaldo. "Beckham and Ronaldo have proved that they are great professionals and that they will give everything for this shirt. We asked the club to talk to these players personally because it is important to sort out the problems now and they said they would do that. It was a positive meeting that we hope will prove to be a turning point", Raul added.