As expected, there was no major upset: Florentino Perez won Real Madrid’s presidential election on Sunday and will remain in office until 2030.
It was fitting for Real Madrid’s disastrous season when Florentino Perez suddenly called for new elections in mid-May, thereby “making his position available.” For the 79-year-old, who has been at the helm of the club continuously since June 1, 2011—following a first term between 2000 and 2006—it was meant to be nothing more than a show of strength. After all, there was still “much history to be written,” as Perez’s campaign slogan put it.
But how eager were the club members to participate in this election? An initial interim result communicated by Real itself at 5 p.m. was not very promising—showing a voter turnout of 31.37 percent. By that point, only 23,593 members had made their way to the ballot box. However, the polling stations remained open for another three hours.
Opponent Riquelme made bold claims in the run-up to the election, spoke of Raul as sporting director, and dreamed of coach Jürgen Klopp and signing Erling Haaland. In the end, however, Perez prevailed as expected with 65 percent of the vote (21,741 votes) — even though, according to his own statements, 1,000 of his mail-in votes had been disqualified due to irregularities. Riquelme finished with 35 percent (11,814 votes) and announced: “This is not the end; this is the beginning.”
The first three deals sealed?
When Perez took the stage after midnight, he had a video message from his new coach—José Mourinho expressed no doubt that Perez would remain president of Real Madrid. The Royals must transfer 15 million euros to Benfica to pry the Portuguese coach away.
In addition to Mourinho, Perez is also said to have made significant progress on deals for Liverpool’s free agent center-back Ibrahima Konaté and Inter’s right-back Denzel Dumfries.
“I would also like to address those members who did not vote for me,” Perez stated that night: “I will do everything in my power to address their concerns. We will intensify our efforts so that everyone knows we are listening to their problems. We will be closer to them than ever before, because we are all Real Madrid.”
