Real’s Perez says he’s victim of plot as Raul, Casillas quotes appear

MADRID: Real Madrid president Florentino Perez said he was being targeted because of the failed Super League ater old recordings appeared on Tuesday in which he atacked club legends Iker Casillas and Raul Gonzalez.

The recordings, which date from 2006, were published in online newspaper El Confidencial on Tuesday. At the time, Perez was no longer president of Real Madrid. He had brought his first term to an end by resigning in February of that year. He was re-elected in 2009.

“Casillas is not the goalkeeper for Real Madrid,” he said. “He is not and never has been. He has been a big failure.”

“The problem is people adore him, love him, talk to him, they defend him so much,” Perez.

“He is one of the biggest frauds and the other is Raul, the two biggest Real Madrid frauds are first Raul and second Casillas.”

The quotes had already appeared in a book by the journalist Jose Antonio Abellan “Assault on Real Madrid” published in 2015.

Perez complained in a statement released by Real on Tuesday that Abellan recorded the remarks secretly. Perez said the timing was a result of his role as an organiser of the Super League.

“The quotes are from conversations clandestinely recorded by Jose Antonio Abellan, who has been trying to sell them for years without success,” Perez said.

“They are loose phrases from conversations taken out of the broad context in which they occur,” Perez said.

“That they are being reproduced now, ater so many years have passed, I understand that it is due to my participation as one of the promoters of the Super League.”

While nine of the 12 Super League clubs have admited their error, Real Madrid, along with Barcelona and Juventus, have refused to abandon the project.

Perez concluded by saying his lawyers “are studying possible actions to be taken.”

Meanwhile, Rodrigo de Paul, who helped Argentina to win the Copa America at the weekend, has signed a five-year deal with Atletico Madrid, the Spanish champions announced on Monday.

“Atletico Madrid have reached an agreement with Udinese for the transfer of Rodrigo de Paul” until June 2026, the La Liga winners said in a statement. Atletico did not give a transfer fee but, according to the Spanish press, it is in the region of 35 million euros ($41 million).