Sunday evening, and fireworks rise above the building site that is Barcelona’s Camp Nou while 61,000 fans and players celebrate their La Liga triumph. As hundreds of more working-class fans try to enter a stadium they can no longer afford to attend, Real Madrid’s players disappear quietly into the dressing rooms before a trip back to the capital.
Publicly, Real Madrid were magnanimous. They used social media to congratulate their greatest rivals on lifting the title and to offer condolences on the death of the father of Barcelona’s coach, Hansi Flick. As Barca’s players celebrated on an open-top bus on Monday, the mood was very different in Madrid.
On Tuesday night, Barcelona issued the following statement: “Regarding the press conference held by the Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, we inform that our legal department are carefully examining his declarations and accusations. They are currently being analysed and the steps to be taken are being assessed. When considered opportune, any positions and decisions that have been adopted will be notified.”
Perez, 79, had just given an extraordinary press conference at Madrid’s training ground, where he named the Negreira referees case, claiming Madrid had been robbed of seven league titles since the referees were paid to be in Barcelona’s pocket.
He had already set the tone, starting with: “Good afternoon, I regret to inform you that I’m not going to resign.” From there, Perez aimed at various critics. He named newspapers, radio stations and journalists he didn’t trust, male and female. The enemies, internal and external, of Madrid came under fire in a paranoia-soaked diatribe which lasted over an hour and was Trumpian in tone. In between, he stated his physical health was OK.
Perez announced a new presidential election for the club, though he was short on details. The barriers to entry to replace him are insurmountable: a candidate must be a Madrid socio (club member) for at least 20 years and have a bank guarantee of 15 per cent of the club’s budget, around €200 million.
That’s why Perez, who has been Real Madrid president for most of this century, is often the only candidate. He extolled his own virtues, the size of Real Madrid, the stadium, the opinion that he’s the greatest Real Madrid president in history. He also said he was tired of it all, but that he had to defend Madrid and himself. He blamed the media for damage to Madrid, yet said little of the damage caused when Madrid led the charge for a European Super League breakaway from Uefa rule for five years.
Perez claims the media are taking advantage of Madrid’s poor form to attack him and the club, private thoughts openly pushed into the public sphere to be disseminated on the front pages. Perez is a hugely powerful man in Spain and football, but his style was unbecoming of his status.
There was no mention of the football following a season where the team that were crowned European champions for the 15th time only two years ago are set to finish second in Spain and who were eliminated from the Uefa Champions League at the quarter-final stage. No mention either of the other sports that Real Madrid compete in, nor the man who is expected to become the latest Madrid coach, Jose Mourinho.
Madrid like going back to former coaches and players. Zinedine Zidane returned, Carlo Ancelotti, Leo Beenhakker and the current coach, former player Alvaro Arbeloa, who himself replaced Xabi Alonso. Both struggled to get control of the dressing room this season.
These are Perez-like figures who have been loved by fans, who have the personality to manage arguably the biggest – and certainly most successful - club in the world. Mourinho, currently at Benfica, is seen as one with the strength of personality to bring order to the big egos in the dressing room. Yet much of Madrid’s success came under the calm leadership of Zidane and Ancelotti, who were almost zen-like amid the continuous circus at Madrid.
Mourinho won one league title at Madrid in his first stint in 2012, ahead of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona, but his appointment would split the fanbase.
“I have no problem with Mourinho,” legendary Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas posted on X. “He seems like a great professional to me. I don’t want him at Real Madrid. I think other coaches would be better equipped to coach at the club of my life. Personal opinion. Nothing more.”
Is Mourinho, a man as familiar with acrimony as any coach, the man to fight fire with fire? Or a diminishing force himself who has been unable to repeat his incredible earlier successes over the past decade? Or is the real man at Madrid the president, for it’s he who former players from Cristiano Ronaldo to Gareth Bale accused of deciding that they were no longer wanted at the Bernabeu.
The Real Madrid world is always stormy when they’re not imperious on the pitch. May, for many fans, is about winning the Champions League and not awkward public introspection.
Wins, more than anything else, will bring some stability to a club which boasts the highest revenues in world football and the most impressive and fully redeveloped home stadium. Real Madrid and Barcelona remain the most desirable clubs to play for among most footballers, but their two fortunes exist in a yin and yang state to each other. This season is still not over and Madrid could finish more than the 15-point record they finished behind Barcelona in 2013.
Madrid don’t have the funds to sign the best players in the world unless money is raised from sales. There’s plenty of interest in the players currently at the Bernabeu. Manchester United, for one, would sign midfielder Aurelien Tchouameni, 26, if the price and wages were right. He had a fight in training last week with captain Fede Valverde, 27, arguably the best midfielder on the planet.
Madrid’s challenges are many. Their team remains stuffed with talent but they also need to keep players who on diminishing contracts such as Vinicius Jr, whose deal expires next year. He and Kylian Mbappe are Madrid’s best two players, yet Mbappe is seen as doing what’s best for Mbappe and not the team. All these players need to be managed in a way that brings out their talents.
And as the talk of Mourinho to Madrid continued, so did the responses to its president.
“The Spanish Association of Sports Press wishes to express its most absolute rejection of the serious accusations that the president of Real Madrid, Mr Florentino Perez, has made against sports journalists,” said another statement. “Respectful criticism is a fundamental part of journalistic practice in any democratic society, where it must be exercised freely. Despite differences of opinion, respect must always prevail on both sides”.
Normally, Real Madrid bulldoze their way through the noise, dominating the media landscape and seldom giving explanations of their actions or thoughts.
On Tuesday, their president showed they are hurting.
