This weekend, Florentino Perez and Enrique Riquelme will go head-to-head in the first Real Madrid presidential election in 20 years. The former is the overwhelming favourite to be re-elected to the position he has held since 2009, but the latter is staking his claim with the club’s members ahead of Sunday’s vote.
Perez has been very busy during the elections, with his people having closed agreements with Jose Mourinho, Ibrahima Konate and Denzel Dumfries, the latter of whom will arrive in a €20m deal from Inter. But Riquelme has also been doing his own work behind the scenes, and he has now publicly revealed his plans ahead of the election.
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Speaking on El Hormiguero (via Diario AS), Riquelme revealed that he will sign Erling Haaland if elected as Real Madrid president this weekend. He claimed that the Norwegian striker is keen to join the Bernabeu club, and that he is able to do so via a clause in his Manchester City contract.
Riquelme also claimed that Haaland’s Man City teammate Rodri Hernandez would also join if he was elected, going as far to say that he would personally cover the membership fees of all Real Madrid members if he broke his promise.
“I promised that I would leave under a notary that if I am president nothing of the club will be sold, it will belong to its members. And then, I don’t have the trajectory of Florentino, I haven’t been president. That is why I promise that the two players I have announced, and I have signed a personal notarial guarantee of mine, if I fail to comply with it I will pay 100% of the entire fee of the 100,000 members of Real Madrid. Haaland has a clause and wants to come to Real Madrid.”
Could Haaland finally be on his way to Real Madrid?
Image via Lewis Storey/Getty Images
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It must be remembered that Perez himself used a similar tactic when he was first elected as Real Madrid president back in 2000. At that time, he delivered on his promise to poach Luis Figo from Barcelona, so it will be interesting to see whether it is used to oust him from the head of the club 26 years later.
It’s no secret that Haaland is a player that Real Madrid have admired for many years. They have so far failed to sign him, but Riquelme firmly believes that he is the one to get it over the line – but whether that happens, or if he even gets the chance to do so, remains to be seen.
