In lieu of actual people turning up, Los Blancos put up a makeshift 1950s crowd montage

After drawing in 50,000 madridistas for Kaka’s unveiling and a whopping 80,000 for Cristiano Ronaldo’s Bernabeu debut, the pressure was on Karim Benzema to put Spanish bums on seats at his initiation ceremony last night.

A fairly impressive 20,000 fans showed up - a reasonable figure in proportion to his transfer fee and status - but conniving Madrid officials tried to trick us into thinking the Bernabeu was packed out with this fake crowd backdrop. You may have fooled those with a black and white TV licence Florentino, but not The Spoiler. We went colour years ago.

When he was given the microphone, the young Frenchman revealed his excitement at playing at the club of his idols Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo (presumably fat Ronaldo), and like the Portuguese man-o’-sex, signed off with a rousing “Hala Madrid!”

Los Blancos show the world one of their new employees

Last night, Real Madrid held a press conference to unveil their second biggest summer signing, some chap called Kaka. Around 50,000 ‘madridistas’ piled into the Bernabéu for a glimpse of their new hero dressed in white, which is more than the average attendances of all but two Premier League clubs last season.

Kaka was tipped to take on the number 5 shirt, making him the third consecutive world player of the year to wear it (after Fabio Cannavaro and Zinedine Zidane). However, it was revealed that he will wear number 8, and Fernando ‘Lady’ Gago will inherit the hallowed number 5, as it is said to be a “very special number” for the Argentinean.

The Brazilian made a very brief speech to the fawning crowd:

“Today it is a very special day for me, I am very happy that this new stage of my career is in Real Madrid. My desire is to have my name in the history of this club, with victories and conquests.”

One man who is hoping for conquests of a very different kind is Cristiano Ronaldo (seamless link, eh?). He was supposed to be unveiled yesterday too, but his press conference has been put back until Monday, presumably so they can build a stage big enough for his ego. This morning, Madrid paid Manchester £80m in full for The Portuguese winger’s services.

Spoiler bonus: Check out video of Kaka’s big day after the jump…