COLUMN: Florentino Perez – A discourse you wouldn’t buy if you were owned by him

issues. He claimed the media was against him, and ranted about the Negreira case, a familiar recourse at Real Madrid this days. Worse even, his personal attacks led him to call journalists ‘ugly’, and he didn’t have a great time with the ABC Journalist Maria Jose Fuentealamo, claiming that: “Look at these two articles they’ve published today. One of them was written by a woman who I don’t know if she knows anything about football or not:”

In 2026, resorting to misogyny in football is appalling to say the least. Coincidentally, ABC’s director was changed half an hour after this argument, related or not to the incident. Perez, until this week, was the only stable element of the club. Alvaro Arbeloa lost the dressing room a long time ago, evidenced by the multiple disputes (some physical) behind the scenes. He had already fired Xabi Alonso, who also couldn’t convince the lads of his ideas. Arbeloa was supposed to calm things down, because a yes-man is always a good idea. Or not quite, given that the only thing I remember from his tenure is his mea culpa after every disappointing performance.

This season has been among the worst in recent years for Madrid, despite the arrival of Kylian

Mbappe. Real Madrid have lost, much to the pleasure of the Catalans. There are many reasons as to why self-criticism is urgently needed at Real Madrid. Yet Perez went ballistic instead, and decided to fire shots at anyone – even targeting South American accents. I’ve never seen so many journalists – regardless of their affiliations – remain speechless after listening to a decaying old man, who has become the football equivalent of Trump.

Perez tried to divert the attention. He wanted Marca, ABC, and Diario AS to talk less about

an imploding dressing room. It usually works, but this time, it didn’t. He tried too hard

by attacking virtually every person he could. Barcelona reacted within an hour with a

statement, due to the many accusations [regarding Negreira] among other things.

Knowing Laporta, I wouldn’t be surprised if he uses this incident for political point-scoring. After universal criticism, Perez decided the answer was to continue speaking. This time, to El Chiringuito’s Josep Pedrerol. At least he found a suitable setting for his level of seriousness.