Florentino Perez left journalists and Spanish football stunned with his performance at a press conference on Tuesday after claiming he was the victim of an "organised campaign" to unseat him, writes Kaveh Solhekol...
Perez called for new club elections and told his opponents to present themselves and challenge him and his board of directors.
The Real Madrid president clearly believes attack is the best form of defence as he blamed the media and referees for all his club's problems this season.
Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni clashing at training two days in a row last week and Valverde ending up in hospital? It's no big deal, according to Perez, a storm in a teacup, apparently something that has happened in every single one of Perez's 26 years in football.
He was more concerned with the news of the clash leaking out than the actual bust-up, vowing he would sort it out: "Leave it to me. I will take care of it."
Perez had called the press conference to announce he was not resigning and instead standing for re-election, but the main reason for his appearance seemed to be a burning desire to set the record straight with the media.
"I made this decision because of this absurd situation of campaigns against me," the 79-year-old Perez said. "The results haven't been the greatest, but that has happened other times before. But they are taking advantage to attack me.
"Some journalists and people want to destroy Real Madrid," he said. "I'll always defend the interest of the Madrid members."
At one point, he insulted the male journalists in the room by calling them ugly before announcing that he was going to cancel his subscription to the newspaper ABC because of their "agenda" against him.
The performance was straight out of the Donald Trump playbook when it comes to how to handle the "fake news" media.
Never compromise and never apologise.
No wonder Perez is so keen to appoint Jose Mourinho next week.
Speaking of the 'Special One', Perez didn't want to be drawn on Mourinho too much: "We are not at that stage of the process."
To be fair to Perez, you can't argue with his record.
Across two spells running Real Madrid spanning some 21 years, they have won seven European Cups and seven Spanish titles.
Tuesday's performance has put Perez right back in the spotlight.
Any rival candiates for the presidency need to have been Real Madrid members for 20 years and they need to provide bank guarantees equivalent to 15 per cent of the club's budget.
Perez has been the only candidate in the past four elections. The last time he faced a challenger was in 2009 so he won't be leaving any time soon.
His next press conference will draw an even bigger audience - and the centre of attention won't be a 79-year-old businessman but a 63-year-old Portuguese manager.
Iker Casillas has demanded that Real Madrid do not hire Mourinho as head coach.
Mourinho is highly likely to be named as Real's new boss - 13 years after he left his first stint at the club.
In Mourinho's final season, he dropped captain Casillas as No 1 goalkeeper in one of many tricky relationships he had with his players.
And Casillas says that while he has no personal issue with the 'Special One', he believes he is not the right man for the job.
"I have no problem with Mourinho. He seems like a great professional to me," Casillas wrote on X.
"I don't want him at Real Madrid. I think other coaches would be better equipped to coach at the club of my life.
"Personal opinion, nothing more."
