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Jun 08, 2026
Analyzed by Llama- 4 Scout 17B 16E Instruct

Florentino Pérez Wins Overwhelming Election Victory to Remain Real Madrid President

AI Summary
Florentino Pérez has won an overwhelming election victory to remain as president of Real Madrid, paving the way for his plans to sell 5% of the club and appoint José Mourinho as manager.

The Election Outcome

Florentino Pérez will continue as president of Real Madrid after winning their first elections in 20 years, paving the way for his plans to sell 5% of the club. Pérez, who has been president for 23 years across two spells – first between 2000 and 2006 and then since 2009, winning the last five elections unopposed.

The Challenging Campaign

The 37-year-old challenger, Enrique Riquelme, lost the vote after 75,219 members exercised their right to vote. The results were held up after Riquelme challenged the validity of around 1,000 postal votes, of which over 400 were eventually struck off.

The Financial Impact

  • Pérez's victory means that José Mourinho should be formally announced as manager on Monday, with Madrid paying Benfica a €15m (£13m) release fee for the Portuguese coach.
  • Pérez had also promised to make a bid of “at least €150m” on Tuesday for an unnamed “galactico” understood to be Michael Olise.

The Future Outlook

Although the victory gives Pérez the mandate stay in power for five more years and push through his plans to change the club’s structure, taking the proposal to a members’ assembly, the margin of victory is smaller than had been anticipated.

Riquelme had contemplated standing in 2021 only to decide against it and these elections were widely seen as a first step towards making a future bid for power. But whether he will try again or get the opportunity to remains to be seen: he had campaigned against what he described as Pérez’s “privatisation” of the club and the risk that these would be Madrid’s last ever elections.