Florentino Pérez, president of Real Madrid, spoke publicly twice within a few days and, honestly, it was almost embarrassing to listen to. In the middle of everything he said, one thing stood out: he is apparently calling elections just to see if anyone actually has the courage and power to challenge him. Along the way, he still managed to be sexist towards a journalist, publicly expose another journalist over a fake cancer story and talk about everything except the most important issues.
Because, as he himself made very clear, this was not about the club’s situation, the constant disappointments or the fact Real Madrid have not won major trophies in the last two seasons. It was about him. About how good he was, how good he still is, and honestly, it all felt forced. Like he was in some kind of Heisenberg mode from Breaking Bad.
As for the sexism, there is not even much to say: it was ridiculous. The fact that this mentality still exists, where a woman is judged as if she cannot understand football simply because she is a woman, makes absolutely no sense anymore. It is a mentality from another century, literally from the decade Florentino was born in, not from 2026.
And then you look at the lack of investment and support for women’s football, especially compared to Barcelona, who are already filling stadiums with 100,000 people watching women’s matches multiple times… the difference is massive.
Then, a day later or so, he went on Chiringuito TV and there he fully played the victim. Some of the things he said honestly felt insulting to the intelligence of Real Madrid supporters. Like, okay, you won the Super Cup, but do you seriously think that is what the fans care about? Saying that with a straight face almost becomes funny.
Then comes the narrative that the media are against him and against the club, when in reality many of the biggest Spanish outlets are not exactly neutral and often lean towards favouring Real Madrid. And then there is the interesting detail: Josep Pedrerol, the presenter of Chiringuito, is a personal friend of Florentino. So the man who says he does not like giving interviews goes directly to his friend’s programme. Coincidence?
So is there really a media campaign against him, or was this just another way to distract attention from the fact Barcelona won yet another La Liga? Because if there is one thing Florentino is genuinely very good at, it is controlling the spotlight. He knows exactly how to pull all the attention back onto Real Madrid and away from everything else.
Conclusion
At the end of all this, the feeling left behind is that Florentino Pérez is building this “me against the world” narrative to reduce the pressure from the supporters. Because the reality is simple: the club has not been delivering on the pitch, it has not won major titles for a while and in recent weeks it has turned into a complete circus.
Problems between players, dressing room stories leaking out, drama involving Mbappé, Carvajal and others… everything feels out of control. And in the middle of all that, instead of fully addressing what is happening, it feels like he would rather throw dust into the air and hope people get distracted.