Real Madrid News
Real Madrid, Barcelona presidents resign from the Spanish Federation Board of Directors, will not be part of RFEF presidential elections
Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez has announced his resignation from the Spanish Football Federation board of directors along with Barcelona president Joan Laporta, as per a report by El Confidential, relayed by MARCA.
The two sent letters to the president of the Federation, starting that they do not want to interfere in the electoral process for the new president. While the elections do not have a start date yet, the duo state that their presence could influence matters unhealthily.
Perez and Laporta have barely been seen in recent years during official RFEF events, and have not officially stepped down in the hopes that the process of electing a new president will be smoother without them.
Both of them have a close relationship with the current president Pedro Rocha, who will be contesting for the seat permanently.
Luis Rubiales was the previous president of the RFEF but removed due to his controversial antics during Spain’s win in the 2023 World Cup, where he forcefully kissed Jennifer Hermoso during the medal presentation.
Real Madrid’s main goal heading into the summer transfer window was to wrap up the signing of Jude Bellingham amid massive interest from Premier League giants such as Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola’s City, especially, were ready to match and increase any salary Madrid offered, and were going strongly into the bidding war.
Eventually, Bellingham decided to join Madrid after they reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for €3 million.
However, following this, los blancos had to improvise a fair bit as Karim Benzema decided to leave the club to join Al-Ittihad on a free transfer. They were expecting him to continue for another season, at least, and it stumped their plans in the market.
In the next few weeks, Madrid chased forwards, and ended up signing Joselu, Brahim Diaz, and a certain Arda Guler, who was close to Barcelona before eventually ending up at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Unfortunately for Madrid, he is yet to play a single minute for the club after picking up a serious injury in pre-season. Despite being on the bench for a couple of games, Guler suffered a relapse in training, and was sidelined again.
Now, reports from Yagiz Sabuncuoglu say that the Turkish international is close to returning to team training.
Guler has slowly, but surely, been recovering from his injury, and could take to the pitch for his first minutes with the club in the next few weeks as Madrid look for solutions after a month full of injuries.
With Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eder Militao, and Thibaut Courtois all out until early 2024, Madrid have relied on Castilla for reinforcements, but could do with Guler’s services in their forward line.
That said, Carlo Ancelotti and co. are expected to be extremely cautious when it comes to the Turkish international. The slightest spell of poor man-management here could make or break the youngster’s career.
