Enrique Riquelme cranked up the pressure in Real Madrid’s presidential race on Wednesday night by saying the club would sign Erling Haaland and Rodri from Manchester City if he wins Sunday’s vote. He went further still, saying he had signed a notarised guarantee to cover the full membership fees for all of Madrid’s 100,000 members next season if he does not deliver.
The claims landed on El Hormiguero just days before members choose whether to keep Florentino Perez or hand the club to a 37-year-old challenger who is trying to turn a football election into a transfer spectacle. Riquelme was not speaking in broad campaign language. He pointed to Haaland by name, while Pablo Matos held up a Real Madrid shirt with the striker’s name and the number nine on it.
Riquelme said Haaland “has a release clause and wants to join Real Madrid,” and he added that “if I’m Real Madrid president, a player like Rodri will play for Real Madrid.” He also used the night to unveil Raul and Fernando Hierro as future sporting director and head of youth academy, and said he would reveal the manager he has lined up on Friday or Saturday. “I don’t like Mourinho for my project, I’ve got another manager,” he said, without giving the name.
That is where the campaign gets harder to separate from the promise. Riquelme has made the transfer talk the headline of his challenge, but the available facts do not show that Haaland or Rodri are available to join Madrid, or that any move is imminent. His fee guarantee, meanwhile, is aimed at a club whose members would have to accept the risk if the names he is selling do not become reality.
Madrid are one of only four Spanish clubs still owned by their members, alongside Barcelona, Athletic Club and Osasuna, and presidents are chosen by vote. Perez, first elected in July 2000 with 16,469 votes to 13,302, is facing a rival for the first time since 2004. He built his original rise around a transfer pledge too, promising Luis Figo from Barcelona, and his line now is simple: “Our members aren’t stupid.” For Riquelme, the question is no longer whether he can make noise. It is whether Sunday’s vote rewards the promise or the proof.
