I'm not sure anyone thought of this until a week ago. It's all Florentino's idea but yeah his idea is I'll call an election out of nowhere, nobody will be prepared and it's an easy win thus making me look like a winner and so I squash any loser talk around the club this summer. It might be hard to find another President who is as well connected as Flo but on the other hand won't a new, young President have time on his side to make connections and starting building/establishing relationships like the Flo has now. Being President of Real Madrid will open alot of doors which are closed otherwise, that is true of Florentino as well. He's not getting meetings and alot of peopel stop returning his phone calls if he loses the election and then it will truly be a "the emperor has no clothes moment" when the narratice that Flo is somehow "the special one.'
You dont get a longer runway with classic tricks from the tyrant playbook like "elections are scheduled in two weeks". But from what I know the guy was contemplating this for some time so maybe there is some kind of contingency on his behalf and a real vision in place already. I wouldnt discard him before he even makes a bid just because "Florentino is the GOAT" with some bureaucratic obstacles added.
🚨 NEW: Florentino Perez is INCREDIBLY motivated this summer.Sources in Real Madrid say they haven't seen him this active and agressive in YEARS.He didn't think Enrique Riquelme would actually step up and run for the elections, but since yesterday, he now believes there will… pic.twitter.com/LipbyHuCpT— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 19, 2026
Mou probably will look to sign defensive RB to rotate with Trent. Like Coentrao - Marcelo in 2011-12. Coentrao started in big away games that season.
Maybe Flo should look into getting a younger girlfriend and party in Ibiza to complete the stereotype.
We gotta win more league titles. Only 5 La Ligas won since 2008. Even Atleti have won two and they were missing out on CL spots often before Simeone's first full season (2012-13). Barca have won 11 league titles in those 18 years. Can't bail out with just "ref robbed us". We weren't even close in half those seasons. ZZ consistently fought for La Liga except 2017-18. Two league titles in 4 full seasons is pretty great in the larger context of 5/18 era.
Sounds like something put out by the White House Press Secretary.. Enrique will get smashed in an election but in a way it's refreshing to see someone oppose Perez. I think Perez's time with the club has come to an end but at the same time I Don't support a Enrique campaign backed by Fernando Sanz and Casillas. Remember Perez lost his first campaign vs Lorenzo Sanz.. If RM had any success this season, Perez would have undoubtedly presented his new ownership model to the socios for a vote and Lagrari would have been the proposed CEO. Perez will still go for this once he sees a favorable climate..
It was hunting with cat vs dog actually. Benz in 2017 talked about his chat with Mou next day. Benzema said he had an hour-long discussion with Mourinho in which he told him: "I'm a football player, you're my manager, I respect you, respect me as a player." And he added: "From then on, there were no cats, no dogs or anything. "I'm shy but if you make fun of me, I'll be straight. When you speak your mind, things are always better." 🔙🗣️ Patrice Evra: “Jose Mourinho is the one who changed Karim Benzema. Karim told me Mourinho did a press conference and said I can’t win, I only have cats in the front, and to win I need Lions. And Benzema was telling me, if after 5 minutes he wasn’t pressing and… pic.twitter.com/WsvaY1X28J— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 20, 2026
Evra is always on a podcast straight lying. There's a site that fact checks football podcasts and there's so many coaches and players bringing up quotes, games, finals that never happened. It's crazy.
It's not about some vision, you're just permanently stuck on the footy football which represents about 20% of the responsibility of the club president at most. He'd need to have some kind of budget orientation ready, political support or at least somebody open to cooperate with him and a lot more. There's plenty more infrastructure work to be done around the stadium. , and the club and the City will try to keep hold of the NFL game in Spain which Barcelona is trying to wrestle away from Madrid, unless there's two games in Spain which seems a bit unlikely for now. Then we have the future of the basketball club both the men's (Euroleague or NBA Europe) and the youth teams with talent fleeing the country for NCAA/NIL opportunities. A candidate would need at least a couple vocal supporters in high ranking positions to earn the trust of the locals, where there's more to it than just "I turn on tv and watch the footy" going on.
It helps if you start campaigning before any elections are called. Your socio base pretty much remains the same, there's zero reason to not create a grassroots foundation of socios that want change, but with the kind of success the club presented on and off the field, gaining traction would have been pretty much impossible. That's what's kind of funny to me. The base you're campaigning to is not me, you or Hendrix22 on BS. It's the club members. They are organized in official Fanclubs, have meetings, are vocal. When the Berserkers published an open letter to the club about its NBA Europe breakout on its own, speaking against it, where was Riquelme? What was his stance? This is the main and most visible support of the club in that aspect and there was zero interaction or contact with Riquelme as a candidate or person with the future of the club in mind. Why would you now suddenly appear out of a cloud of smoke and ask for those people to vote for you? That's why he isn't being trusted. No base, no foundation, no contact points with the club other than being on yachts and luxury events with former and current players. Not good enough for me. Some random goofball on the internet will tell you "lol, basketball doesn't matter", but there's people that follow the team religiously and are members with just as much of a vote as those that only watch the football team.
Ironically, Dom, a socio recognizes that any candidate outside Flo needs time to campaign so the socios get time to know the candidates. The campaign, even before elections only works if you know when the elections would actually happen. Not so effective during snap elections.
Nothing prevents you from being critical of the direction of the club whether there are elections or not, unless you have no opinion, no program, no platform. Riquelme himself admitted that he thought he would be a candidate in case Florentino steps down which basically suggests that he doesn't really have anything to say or to present. He's just another wealthy Socio of the club throwing his hat in. Multiple very visible people within the clubs orbit said this is truly the first time they heard of him.
Of course. But then any other candidate wouldnt be ready without time to prepare for their candidacy either. The monetary requirement alone is a nightmare to procure in less than 10 days, not to mention creating a campaign platform. Flo isn't fooling anyone calling for elections.
Of course, but the cloud of distrust would be a lot lighter if the candidate would be on pictures with actual fans and people that vote instead of shirtless with a champagne bottle on a yacht with Sergio Ramos and Iker.
Enrique isn't campaigning to win this election, he's campaigning to win the 'next' election. Playing the long game.
So far the only thing he has said is "I want to be the president of Real Madrid". 3 days to go until the deadline to present a candidacy. I don't really believe he'll even run at this point. This is his current stance: “I still don’t know if I’m going to run,” he maintains. He adds, “But if we manage to create something exciting, despite the complexity of the rules… I’d love to.” Hahahaha.
This is pretty smart. 🚨 Enrique Riquelme: "These could be Real Madrid's last elections because privatization is coming, or at least that's what's being announced. Those of us who disagree with this privatization have an ethical and moral obligation to ensure that Real Madrid remains owned by its… pic.twitter.com/cq42v4M7sl— Madrid Zone (@theMadridZone) May 20, 2026
Florentino has talked about selling minority stake to private group. Madrid media has reported about his plans too. Enrique will likely lose, but it'd be interesting to see if he can convince a decent chunk of Socios that they won't have a say in who runs the club when Florentino goes through with private ownership plan.