Real Madrid president Florentino Perez used his appearance on Spanish TV show Horizonte on Thursday night to claim he would bid at least €150m for a mystery player if his club’s socios vote him back in as president this weekend.
The first election campaign at the Bernabeu since 2006 has become increasingly dramatic and surreal as it progresses towards Sunday’s vote of Madrid’s approximately 100,000 club members.
Wednesday evening had seen challenger Enrique Riquelme promise that should he win the election, Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Rodri would both play at the Bernabeu next season.
Perez used his late-night talk show appearance 24 hours later to tease that he planned to break Madrid’s transfer record (€127m on Jude Bellingham from Dortmund two years ago) next week as soon as he was back at work at the Bernabeu.
Enrique Riquelme talks to the media (Photo: Pierre-Philippe MARCOU/AFP via Getty Images)
“On Tuesday I’ll make an offer to a big Champions League club for a player which would be the biggest transfer in all Real Madrid’s history, at least €150m,” Perez said, attempting an enigmatic smile.
Host Iker Jimenez managed to get Perez to admit the target was not at a Premier League club. In response to Michael Olise, Jeremy Doku and Harry Kane being mentioned, Perez said Jimenez would not be able to come up with the correct answer, while reminding any Madrid members watching of his history of signing galacticos, including Figo, Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Kaka, and Cristiano Ronaldo.
Even when Jimenez said that voting socios would surely love to know who the player was, Perez refused to budge. “They’ll have to wait, we will do it on Tuesday,” he said. “It’s not Haaland, but it’s a total galactico. First, we have to talk to the club. We are serious, not like them.”
That was a reference to Riquelme’s claim the previous night that Haaland wanted to come to Madrid, and had a clause that could be triggered. City have denied any clause exists, and Perez said the whole claim was just a “bluff” which should not be taken seriously. “They have all denied it — his father, his agent, his club say it is lies, everyone can see that it is a bluff,” Perez replied.
“This is a candidacy with a lot of bluffs, and I am here to protect Madrid from those who want to destabilize it.”
There were a few other surprises as Perez, 79, repeatedly reminded viewers of the seven Champions League trophies won during his two terms, how the club was broke when he took over in 2000, but is now worth €10 billion according to Forbes.
As Perez went through lines they have all heard before — most viewers’ minds surely wandered to speculation about who the mystery €150m target might be. Would Real annoy neighbours, Atletico Madrid, and thwart Clasico rivals Barcelona, by going for Julian Alvarez? Given Madrid’s requirement for a new midfield organiser, would Paris Saint Germain’s Vitinha or Joao Neves make more sense?
Horizonte is an investigative current affairs show, covering politics, crime and other social issues, with an alternative and conspiratorial perspective. When Perez finally appeared — after 70 minutes of in-depth coverage of supposed scandals faced by Spain’s socialist president Pedro Sanchez — there were few probing investigative questions asked.
There was confirmation that Liverpool defender Ibrahima Konate and Inter Milan right-back Denzel Dumfries were being lined up to work under returning coach Jose Mourinho at the Bernabeu next season.
“Mourinho is a great coach, who we know (from 2010-13), who taught us a really big competitive spirit,” Perez said. “After he left we won five European Cups, due to that competitive spirit. I trust in him a lot.”
The previous night had seen renewables magnate Riquelme, 37, appear on El Hormiguero (The Anthill), another of Spain’s high-profile late-night talk shows. Perez’s campaign tried to steal the spotlight from Riquelme’s promises by posting a video on X early in the show, while the 37-year-old was talking about his early moves in business, supplying sand for a rebuild of the Panama Canal.
“While on the TV some people talk and talk and talk,” the video teased, before cutting to Mourinho wearing a Real Madrid training kit, smiling and saying ‘si’ (yes). A few minutes later, host Pablo Motos showed the clip to Riquelme as the show continued live — the 37 year old appeared momentarily taken aback but regained his composure. “He’s a good coach, but not for our project,” Riqueleme said, but said he had a different manager lined up instead.
This unnamed manager would be “super exciting for Real Madrid” and was “just who the socios want“, leaving viewers to wonder whether rumours of Riquelme had lined up current Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta or former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp might actually be true. The biggest reveal of the night was left to the end, with host Motos holding up a Madrid shirt with Haaland 9 on the back, despite the striker renewing his City contract until 2034 just five months ago. “Haaland has a release clause and wants to join Real Madrid,” Riquelme said, adding that he would refund the membership fees for all of Real Madrid’s 100,000 members next season should he fail to deliver on his promise to sign both Haaland and his current City teammate Rodri – a clear conscious echoing of Perez’s famous 2000 election promise to take Figo from Barcelona.
[EXCLUSIVA] El FICHAJE ESTRELLA de Enrique Riquelme #RiquelmeEH pic.twitter.com/XziduVyN68
— El Hormiguero (@El_Hormiguero) June 3, 2026
An even further surreal turn came with claims online that Mourinho had not actually appeared in Perez’s campaign video, instead it had been generated by AI. The Portuguese has not publicly confirmed he will return to the Bernabeu bench, although on Thursday Benfica announced Madrid would trigger his €15 million release clause if Perez wins this weekend.
As someone who ran for political office before making his millions in business, Perez clearly revels in the Machiavellian backroom tactics of a campaign. Although it was again evident on Thursday night, as he shifted uncomfortably at times and checked notes on the table in front of him, how he lacks the confident public speaking style of a natural politician. Neither is Riquelme the most charismatic of performers, as his quite wooden joshing with the chippy puppets on El Hormiguero showed.
Through all this, there has been a feel of football mirroring real life — the Real Madrid presidential campaign is another reminder that politics now often resembles reality TV in many parts of the world. Ads during Thursday’s Horizonte included a new ‘Yo Trump’ episode of the show featuring the US president, which is coming soon.
Whether any Madrid socio fully believes that Perez really has a new superstar galactico lined up, or if Haaland has made a promise to Riquelme, or if the Mourinho ad was made by AI, does not really seem the most important thing. It is all just more great content as the campaign enters its final stages ahead of Sunday’s vote, where long-serving Perez appears to still be favourite, but an upset from upstart Riquelme cannot yet be completely ruled out.
