MADRID, June 8– Florentino Perez was re-elected as Real Madrid president for the next four years after defeating his rival Enrique Riquelme in a vote held Sunday. The result was declared in the early hours of Monday after over 1,000 votes were challenged due to alleged irregularities in the postal voting.
Perez, 79, returns for another four-year term to lead the club with 21,741 votes (65 percent) while Riquelme, a businessman from Alicante, won 11,814 votes (35 percent). Perez called the election on May 12 at a press conference, which came just before the end of Real Madrid’s second season without winning a major trophy.
Sunday is the first time Perez has had a rival at an election to be Real Madrid president since he returned to the club in 2009. However, Riquelme was relatively unknown by the majority of club members and had little time to put together his proposals for head coach and his desired signings.
Riquelme said former players Raul Gonzalez, Fernando Hierro and Iker Casillas would all work for the club if he won, and promised to sign Manchester City players Rodri and Erling Haaland, although Haaland’s representative denied this was true.
He also said he wanted former Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp as head coach, though Klopp’s agent said the German wasn’t interested in returning to a dugout.
During his campaign, Perez announced that if elected, Jose Mourinho would return as Real Madrid coach after a 13-year absence, with the Portuguese now expected to be confirmed in the coming days. Perez also said he would sign Ibrahima Konate, who leaves Liverpool on a free transfer, along with Inter Milan full back Denzel Dumfries. (Namibia Daily News / Xinhua)
