Pellegrini was presented at Juande Ramos' replacement at the Bernabeu today on a two-year contract after completing his switch from Villarreal.

The 55-year-old Chilean had been at the Yellow Submarine for five seasons, having previously spent a number of years coaching in South America with the likes of River Plate, San Lorenzo, Liga de Quito and Universidad Catolica.

And even at the start of his coaching career back in the 1980s with Universidad de Chile, Pellegrini felt confident he would one day end up sitting on the bench at Madrid.

"It's hard to express in a few words the emotion and pride that I feel for coaching a club like Real Madrid, which is perhaps the biggest club in the world," he said.

"I can tell you that when I started in this profession 23 years ago I said I would end up coaching at Real Madrid. It's been a dream come true and has come through hard and serious work."

Pellegrini is the man tasked with fulfilling the dream of recently-installed president Florentino Perez to return Madrid back to the top of the football tree.

Perez, who was in charge of Madrid for six years before resigning in 2006, returned to the post on Monday after he was the only candidate to officially present himself for election.

Perez has promised a "spectacular project" to get Madrid back amongst the world elite, having seen the team end this season with no silverware while arch rivals Barcelona walked off with an historic treble.

Madrid have also badly underachieved in Europe, failing to get beyond the last 16 of the Champions League in any of the last five seasons.

Madrid have been crowned European champions a record nine times and their poor recent displays in the competition will have hurt the club deeply.

Perez is determined to bring the good times back though, both in terms of silverware and entertainment, and Pellegrini is confident that in him they have chosen the right coach for the job.

"I think I've arrived at the right time, having worked in South America and spending five years in Spain. I believe they've made the right choice. I truly believe we will build a great team and that we'll achieve important goals," added Pellegrini, who insists he understands the pressures of being at a club like Madrid compared to one like Villarreal.

"I've lived in Spain five years, I already knew the differences before," he added.

"Just as in Ecuador and Argentina, the pressure is big, but for me this is a motivation, it doesn't intimidate me. It's not going to make me change.

"I've come at the right time and with the conviction of what we need to achieve - excellence in play and results.

"This is the challenge for me, to mix good results with good play.

"Winning is important, but I like my teams to play good football as well."

Perez's previous spell as president of the Spanish giants was characterised by the famous 'galacticos' policy which saw Madrid bring in players such as Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham and Ronaldo for massive fees.

A similar plan of attack is on the agenda this time as well, with the likes of Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo, Franck Ribery, David Villa and David Silva all being linked to the Madrid outfit in the press.

When quizzed about possible new arrivals today, Pellegrini said: "This club always tried to sign the best. There's been talk about lots of names (in the media) and all of them are great players.

"Any club in the world would want to have them, but I've not seen any official statement from the club with regards to this. This project is going to be big, but we'll have to wait to see the names."