Florentino Perez said he would back a club-record transfer bid of about 150 million euros if he is re-elected as Real Madrid president on Sunday, putting a huge promise at the center of the club’s vote. The 79-year-old also moved to shut down the noise around Michael Olise, saying the Crystal Palace winger is not the player he has in mind.
That matters now because nearly 100,000 Real Madrid members are due to cast their ballots, and Perez has tied his pitch for another term to a return to the kind of headline-grabbing recruitment that defined his first spell in charge. He told a Spanish TV show that he would make an offer to a major Champions League club “on Tuesday or so,” and that it would be the biggest fee Madrid has ever paid.
Perez first won the presidency in 2000 and pushed a Galacticos policy that brought star names to Madrid and helped deliver two La Liga titles and one Champions League before he resigned in 2006. He returned in 2009 and has since been re-elected four times in a 17-year second term, making him the club’s dominant figure as members continue to pay an annual fee of around £130 to help choose the president.
The promise lands after Real Madrid finished the 2025-26 season without a major trophy for the second straight year, adding pressure on Perez to show he still has a plan to refresh the squad. But the public teasing has also created its own confusion: he named Olise as a player he admires, then immediately ruled him out, and did the same with Jeremy Doku while also dismissing Erling Haaland, leaving the identity of the target unresolved.
For now, the only certainty is that Sunday’s vote could unlock a transfer bid unlike any Madrid have made before. If Perez wins, the club’s next move is likely to come quickly, but the name of the player he is chasing remains the one thing he has chosen not to say.
