Florentino Pérez Secures Victory – Mourinho's Return to Real Madrid

Florentino Pérez has tightened his grip on Real Madrid once again. The 79-year-old has been re-elected president by a commanding margin, taking 65 percent of the vote and brushing aside 37-year-old challenger Enrique Riquelme, the club confirmed on Sunday.

“We have won the elections and will continue working to keep winning titles,” Pérez declared in his victory speech, a familiar message but delivered at a moment of looming upheaval.

Because this is not just another mandate. It is the prelude to a reunion.

Mourinho, back to the Bernabéu

The result clears the way for Jose Mourinho to return to the Santiago Bernabéu dugout, with the Portuguese coach expected to be announced as Real Madrid’s new manager as early as Monday.

Now 63, Mourinho is set to come back 13 years after his first spell in charge, with Madrid paying Benfica a reported €15m release fee to free him from his current contract. It is a bold, unmistakably Pérez move: go back to the man who once turned Madrid into a snarling, relentless machine in the face of Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.

Pérez did not bother to hide the plan. “Proud to have the best players in the world, proud to welcome back one of the best coaches in the world, a Madridista like Jose Mourinho,” he said, standing firmly in the glow of his renewed mandate.

A brief campaign video last week had already lit the fuse. On Pérez’s official Instagram account, Mourinho appeared in a Real Madrid shirt, looking into the camera and saying a single word: “Yes.” For many socios, that was as powerful as any manifesto.

A gamble wrapped in nostalgia

Mourinho’s first tenure, from 2010 to 2013, left deep marks on the club and the league. He won La Liga once, tearing the title away from Guardiola’s Barcelona with a record-breaking points tally. He lifted the Copa del Rey and the Spanish Super Cup, all while turning every Clásico into a political event as much as a football match.

But appointing him again in 2026 is no comfort choice. It is a risk.

Real Madrid have just finished a second consecutive season without a major trophy. For a club that measures itself in silver and parades, that is a crisis. Bringing back a divisive figure like Mourinho is Pérez’s answer: double down on personality, conflict, and iron discipline.

“We will continue working so that Real Madrid keeps winning titles,” Pérez repeated, this time sounding less like a slogan and more like a promise under pressure. “And we will fight until the end to achieve the 16th European Cup.”

That is the bar. Nothing less.

Riquelme’s defeated vision

On the other side of the ballot, Enrique Riquelme tried to sell a different future. The younger candidate, at 37, had built his campaign around a blockbuster pledge: sign Manchester City and Norway striker Erling Haaland if he won.

It was the language of a new generation of presidents – star-chasing, social media-ready. But in a club where tradition, continuity and the cult of the strong leader still matter, it was not enough. The socios chose the known power broker over the ambitious outsider.

Real Madrid remains what it has been for decades: a members’ club with a president who dominates the landscape.

“Rest assured,” Pérez told them, “with me as president, Real Madrid has been, is, and will always remain owned by its members.”

Bernabéu, power, and a volatile reunion

As he spoke, Pérez again held up the stadium as a symbol of his rule. “We will continue to take pride in the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, the best stadium in the world,” he said, tying the club’s gleaming home, its star-studded squad and the return of Mourinho into one sweeping narrative of grandeur.

The pieces are now in place: an all-powerful president, a restless fanbase, a barren trophy cabinet, and a coach who thrives in storms rather than calm.

Madrid have bet that the second act of Jose Mourinho in white will bring back fear, edge and, above all, trophies.

If it doesn’t, the noise inside that “best stadium in the world” will be aimed not just at the touchline, but at the presidential box.