Tuesday, April 13, 2021 at 11:26 AM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 11:30

Florentino Pérez has been re-elected as president of Real Madrid, the club confirmed via official channels on Tuesday. The 74-year-old Spaniard is appointed because no rival candidates have presented themselves in the past two weeks. Any challengers had until midnight to run for president at Real, but that did not happen. Pérez thus starts his sixth term as president of the Royal and will also be in charge for the next four years.

Pérez is currently in his fifth term as chairman. In 2017, the director was also automatically re-elected when no rival candidates came forward. The former construction contractor previously held sway between 2000 and 2006. At the time, Pérez took over the gavel from Lorenzo Sanz, made a number of spectacular promises and thus formed the basis of a new era for the Spanish superpower. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo was brought to the Santiago Bernabéu for an amount of 94 million euros and Gareth Bale came to the Spanish capital for 100 million.

Pérez’s new reappointment did not come out of the blue. The requirements to start as preses for the thirteen-time winner of the Champions League are not for everyone. For example, a candidate must have at least fifteen percent of the club’s budget in equity. A condition that was set up by Pérez himself in 2012 and amounts to a sloppy one hundred million euros. In total, Pérez can call himself president of Real for eighteen years. Previously, he was at the helm between 2000 and 2006.

The important spearhead for Pérez is, among other things, the completion of the renovation of the Santiago Bernabéu. The work on Real’s famous premises, which should be completed by 2022, will cost more than half a billion euros. The capacity will remain virtually the same with 81,000 seats, but the stadium will soon have a retractable roof, a 360-degree screen, a roof terrace and numerous shops and entertainment venues. In addition, Pérez focuses on managing club finances after the corona pandemic and attracting Kylian Mbappé or Erling Braut Haaland, two world stars who are high on Real’s wish list.