When you think of Real Madrid, you necessarily think of Florentino Pérez. Brilliant businessman and architect of some of the best Real Madrid in history, the emblematic president of Real Madrid arouses admiration, respect, and sometimes even terror. However, even if he is the main leader of the club in the Spanish capital, we often tend to wrongly think that he takes care of the Merengue team on a daily basis and that he is behind all the decisions taken internally. Which is far from reality, Pérez only intervening in the big files, as was the case in the Mbappé soap, or in this file of the next Real Madrid coach. Most transfers or the decisions to be made with young players return mainly to his close guard, made up of his right arm and managing director José Angel Sanchez, the Juni Calafat recruitment manager and the director of football Santiago Solari.
Moreover, Florentino Pérez is often praised or criticized for choices that have not necessarily been taken by him. And in recent years, another man has been taking power internally: Anas Laghrari. A name practically unknown to the general public, but this 40 -year -old financier, born in Casablanca in Morocco and having grown in France, is a man who has a lot of influence on Florentino Pérez. It must be said that the two have known each other since the childhood of Laghrari, since his father was a construction magnate in Morocco, and he had worked on many projects with Pérez. Even after his death, they stayed in touch. Laghrari had a career in the bank, and his move to Madrid to work at Société Générale brought him even closer to the Boss of Real Madrid, since the latter mainly called on this bank to finance its various operations. Laghrari even saved him at one point, when Pérez was in dirty sheets with his ACS construction company, and this episode consolidated the bond of trust between the two men.
A friendly friendship
Unlike many laying of his environment, Laghrari voluntarily moves from cameras and prefers to stay in the shade. After leaving the bank and worked in the Council – being at the heart of certain operations of Real Madrid, whose renovation of the stadium in particular – its name began to circulate a little in the media when the project of the European Super League was born. It's simple, if Florentino Pérez and his Barcelona counterpart Joan Laporta are the faces of this controversial project, it is Laghrari who is the founder, but especially the brain. It was he who made the link between all the clubs and who studied the financial aspect of this ambitious new competition. For the anecdote, he also helped Barça on the financial level, advised by Florentino Pérez, the latter being aware that for the good of Real Madrid, he needs a strong and powerful sworn enemy.
Brilliant, worker, particularly intelligent and educated man, full of resources and describes as sympathetic within Real Madrid, Laghrari is therefore not just a spiritual son of Florentino Pérez, but a real businessmate and confidant. And Pérez is a man who does not give his confidence to anyone … Even if he does not have an official position within the club, he logically begins to have weight on certain decisions and has his say more and more to say. Recently, the Spanish press revealed that he advised Florentino Pérez to turn Jürgen Klopp for the post of future Real Madrid coach after Carlo Ancelotti has left. Even if the choice of the Madrilene staff is rather on Xabi Alonso, the arguments of Laghrari were listened to.
Florentino Pérez's successor?
Some media go so far as to explain that it is the favorite to replace Pérez at the head of Real Madrid. At the age of 77, he left for a new mandate, but everything indicates that it will be his last, and that there will be a new president in 2029. According to Marcahe hopes to leave the club in good hands and he sees in Laghrari a candidate perfect to occupy the throne of the Bernabéu. Only problem: you have to be Spanish to occupy this position. Pérez still has the power to change the regulations. The fact that he is not particularly known to the general public, as a former player could be, could also play against him. With a superb CV, the downstream of Pérez and a slight change in the criteria to apply for the club's presidency, Laghrari still would have any serious options.
What is certain is that for Pérez, Laghrari must be the pillar of Real Madrid once he left. The two men are also working to change the club's model, and to pass it from a socios club to a more modern model, in which the socios would have their say but which could allow the entry of external capital. A fairly complex project that may not be very popular, and which presents itself as the main challenge of the duo for the next few years. Without projecting yourself so far, it will be interesting enough to see what will be its influence this summer, with months of July and August which promises to be particularly animated, especially in the reconstruction of the workforce …
