Perez promises record €150m signing amid election battle
Florentino Perez has never shied away from a fight. On Spanish television programme Horizonte, with the presidential race closing in and the noise around Real Madrid reaching familiar levels of hysteria, the long-serving president went on the offensive – in the transfer market and at the ballot box.
The headline was clear: a blockbuster signing is coming.
Perez revealed that Madrid are preparing to announce the arrival of a player valued at €150 million next week, a deal he said would represent the biggest transfer fee in the club’s history. No hints, no names. Just a number and a promise that something huge is already in motion.
What he did make absolutely clear is who the player is not.
“It’s not Erling Haaland or Harry Kane,” Perez said, cutting through weeks of speculation with a single line. The two strikers have been relentlessly linked with a move to the Santiago Bernabeu, but the president dismissed those reports outright.
Instead, he laid out a different kind of transfer blueprint – one that mixes star power with structural rebuilding.
“I can tell you about three signings: [Jose] Mourinho, [Ibrahima] Konate, and [Denzel] Dumfries. But there will be more,” Perez said. “On Tuesday, I’m going to make a significant offer to a top Champions League team for a great player. It would be the largest transfer fee Real Madrid has ever paid. At least 150 million.”
It was a striking declaration, and not just because of the money. The timing matters.
Behind the scenes at the Bernabeu, tension is rising. Presidential rival Enrique Riquelme has publicly pledged to bring Haaland to Madrid as the centrepiece of his campaign, a bold promise aimed squarely at a fanbase conditioned to expect galácticos.
Perez is not just challenging that idea. He is trying to crush it.
“The criticism doesn’t hurt me. What hurts me is that these people want to influence Real Madrid; Riquelme’s father was one of them,” he said, his tone turning from defiant to openly combative.
He spoke of a “conspiracy in the media” to destabilise the club, suggesting a coordinated attempt to unsettle Madrid from the outside as the elections approach. That, he insisted, is why he moved to call the vote.
“I’ve been noticing a kind of conspiracy in the media to destabilize the club. I wanted to nip it in the bud. That’s why I decided to call elections,” Perez explained. “What a coincidence that those who wanted to destabilize Real Madrid are the same ones who come from a sinister period in the club’s history. They brought people into the assemblies who weren’t from Real Madrid, they snuck in. And that’s why I came back in 2009. Now, those are their children. I’m furious.”
The language was raw, unusually so for a president who usually prefers polished institutional messaging. Here, though, he chose to name the battle lines and drag history into the present.
Riquelme’s centrepiece pledge – Haaland in a Madrid shirt – drew particular fire.
“Everyone has denied it: his father, his agent, and the club. It’s a bluff. It’s a candidacy full of bluffs,” Perez said. “And that’s why I’m here, to defend Real Madrid. We are a united club.”
So the picture is set. On one side, a challenger promising the next global superstar. On the other, an incumbent president vowing the biggest transfer in Madrid’s history, while insisting Haaland is not part of the equation.
The identity of that €150m player will define more than just the next phase of the squad. It could shape the outcome of the election – and the direction of Real Madrid’s future.
