Real strongman Perez sees off wannabes

Florentino Perez will stay on as Real Madrid president until 2021 after no other candidates presented a bid to rival the incumbent before Sunday’s deadline, the European champions announced in a statement yesterday.

Perez has barely had to contend with any rivals for his post since the club changed rules for presidential candidates in 2012.

The alterations mean anyone aspiring to be president has to have been a member of Real for at least 20 years, compared to the old requirement of 10 years, and have a personal guarantee of over €75 million from a Spanish bank.

No candidate emerged in the 10-day period since the electoral process began on June 8, leaving

Madrid –

construction magnate Perez, 70, a free run to his third successive mandate and fifth overall.

Perez first became Real president in 2000, seeing off incumbent Lorenzo Sanz by promising to lure winger Luis Figo from bitter rivals Barcelona, which he quickly delivered on by bringing the Portuguese international to the Spanish capital for a then world record fee of €62 million.

Perez’s expensive and ambitious project, which later brought in the likes of Frenchman Zinedine Zidane, now Real’s manager, England’s David Beckham and Brazil’s Ronaldo, had initial success but ended with the team floundering, prompting his resignation in February 2006.

The Spaniard returned to the top role at the Santiago Bernabeu in elections in 2009 and picked up where he had left off by breaking the world transfer record twice in a week with the signings of Brazilian Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo.

His large-scale investment in the team did not yield a league title in his second term as president until 2012, with a first Champions League triumph in 12 years following in 2014.

The club have proved shrewd in the transfer market in recent years, however, and last season’s Champions League and La Liga double was built on a robust squad, allowing Zidane to freely rotate his side. – Reuters