Florentino Pérez promised to bid for a $174 million (€150 million) “Galáctico” player this summer as he tries to win Sunday’s presidential elections at Real Madrid.
Pérez, 79, has already said he will bring José Mourinho as coach, as well as signing defender Ibrahima Konaté on a free transfer, while he confirmed on Thursday that he’ll sign Internazionale wing-back Denzel Dumfries.
In a Spanish television interview on Thursday, Pérez told Cuatro’s “Horizonte” that he would submit a bid next week which, if successful, would break Madrid’s transfer record.
“On Tuesday, I’m going to make an offer to an important, Champions League club, for a great player,” Pérez said. “It would be the most money that Real Madrid have paid for a player in history. At least €150 million.”
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Pérez, who has been Madrid president for 23 of the last 26 years, is being challenged in Sunday’s members’ vote by businessman Enrique Riquelme, 37.
Riquelme has promised to sign Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Rodri if he’s elected, vowing to pay the club’s membership fees for a year if he fails to land the pair.
Pérez wouldn’t name the player for whom he was planning to make an offer.
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“It isn’t [Michael] Olise, he’s a great player, but it isn’t Olise,” Pérez said. “It isn’t [Jeremy] Doku, it isn’t Haaland. It isn’t [Harry] Kane. It’s a player who plays from the midfield, or further forwards. And he isn’t a Premier League player. He’s a total Galáctico. But first we’ll talk to his club.”
Madrid’s transfer record is currently the $119.6 million (€103 million) plus 30% in variables which they paid to sign Jude Bellingham from Borussia Dortmund in 2023, followed by the $116 million (€100 million) plus variables paid for Eden Hazard in 2019.
