Some people did not understand Florentino Pérez’s remarkable and somewhat lunatic media outing. Indeed, in addition to having taken shots at certain journalists and certain Spanish media, but also at Barça or La Liga, the Spanish businessman notably mentioned – without saying their names – enemies who were acting against him in the shadows, to the point where some believed that Pérez was engaging in schizophrenic conspiracy theories. But clearly, the Real Madrid boss was not attacking an imaginary enemy. It was Enrique Riquelme he was targeting, and it was him he was talking about when he challenged, again without naming him, “a man with a South American accent”inviting him to run for office.
This man is none other than Riquelme, a particularly brilliant businessman, who, contrary to what Pérez’s remark suggested, is not Latin American but Spanish. However, he quickly left Europe to settle on the other side of the Atlantic, in Panama in particular, where he launched his first businesses in his early twenties. At only 37 years old, he founded the Cox Energy group, an energy giant which operates in Spain and various countries on the American continent. Riquelme is currently based in Mexico, hence Pérez’s small tackle. He therefore embodies a certain youth, and his group is a model of success. For example, it has just bought the Mexican sector of another giant, Iberdrola, for 4 billion dollars.
It meets all the criteria
Where his profile is very interesting and above all threatening is that he meets all the criteria to run for the presidency of Real Madrid, which had been modified by Pérez to make it almost impossible for other serious candidates to appear. He is obviously Spanish, an adult, and has more than 20 years of seniority as a member, since he is the son of a former Madrid leader from the presidency of Ramon Calderon and a supporter of the club since childhood. But above all, and this is the most complicated point, each candidate who presents himself must deposit a check representing 15% of the club’s budget, to show that he has a certain financial solvency. That’s almost 200 million euros to put on the table, and it’s an amount that Riquelme is able to provide.
Even though he’s not a particularly high-profile figure outside of the business world, he’ll have some pretty interesting support. For example, he could count on the support of Iberdrola and major leaders of Spanish groups, and above all, on that of several club legends like Iker Casillas or Sergio Ramos. He is also close to certain faces known to the general public and to madridismolike Rafael Nadal, with whom he works on several projects, in the world of padel and maritime sports in particular. Even if the former tennis player wanted to point out that he is not part of any candidacy for the moment. For the moment, Riquelme is not yet officially a candidate for the presidency of Real Madrid but, as indicated A.S.he is seriously considering it and has even already started working on some areas of a possible candidacy… He comes from elsewhere, via Marcato publish a letter in which he invites appeasement and dialogue with the current management. Clearly, there is danger for Florentino Pérez.
