After confirming that José Mourinho is stepping down as coach of Real Madrid, club President Florentino Pérez announced that he will run for re-election on June 16, according to MARCA. Pérez: "I don't know if there will be another candidate. There has always been at least one other, except in the last ones. It might be healthier if there were more than one candidate" (MARCA, 5/20). REUTERS' Iain Rogers reported Pérez's "record as Real Madrid president was under scrutiny on Tuesday" after his "latest coaching project ended in disarray" with the premature departure of Mourinho. The "world's richest club by income finished their latest campaign without a major title, surrendering their La Liga crown to arch rivals Barcelona," losing in the semifinals of the Champions League for the third season in a row and falling 2-1 to Atlético Madrid in last week's Copa del Rey final. Mourinho was the eighth coach Pérez has hired during two stints as president -- from '00-05 and from '09 to the present -- during which time around €700M of the club's money "has been spent on players" (REUTERS, 5/21).
FLORENTINO IN FIGURES: In Madrid, Rubén Jiménez wrote that an examination of Pérez "shows that he has invested almost €860M in the transfer market to win just 10 trophies over the last 10 years." Each "piece of silverware has cost an average of €86M, a crazy amount considering the nature of the haul achieved: just one Champions League, three 'La Liga' titles, one Spanish Cup, three Spanish Super Cups, one UEFA Super Cup and one Intercontinental Cup." Pérez "has employed almost as many coaches as he has won trophies. Eight managers have been and gone during the current Real Madrid president's two mandates." His "most successful period to date came under the man already installed in the 'Los Blancos' hotseat, Vicente Del Bosque" (MARCA, 5/21).
CALDERÓN CRITICAL: SPORT reported former Real Madrid President Ramón Calderón has criticized Pérez via Twitter. Calderón said on Twitter, "Pérez's speech demonstrates that intelligent people can lose their minds and their senses of reality. Or will it be that very rich people are so poor that they only have money? He has lost his head: 7 years, €800M, 45 players, 8 coaches for 1 Liga and 1 Copa del Rey, but we have elevated the athletic level. We are much better than Palencia" (SPORT, 5/21).
POLL REVEALS SUPPORT: In a poll on AS's website, 59% of 36,854 voters answered "yes" to the question, "Is Florentino a good president for Real Madrid?" (AS, 5/20).
