Florentino Pérez
Born	Florentino Pérez Rodríguez March 8, 1947 (1947-03-08) (age 62) Hortaleza, Madrid, Spain
Residence	Madrid, Spain
Nationality	Spanish
Alma mater	Polytechnic University of Madrid
Occupation	Civil Engineer
Net worth	▬ $1.8 billion[1]
Known for	President of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol
Board member of	Grupo ACS (C.E.O.)
Religious beliefs	Roman Catholic
Spouse(s)	María Ángeles "Pitina" Sandoval
Children	Florentino Pérez Sandoval Eduardo Pérez Sandoval María Ángeles Pérez Sandoval
Relatives	Eduardo Pérez del Barrio (father)

Florentino Pérez Rodríguez (born 8 March 1947) is a Spanish businessman, former politician, and current president of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol, as well as ACS. He is most famous for ushering Real Madrid's period of Los Galácticos, a time period in which he paid extremely high transfer fees for elite footballers.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Real Madrid 2.1 First term 2.2 Third term 2.3 Signings 3 See also 4 References

[edit] Biography

Pérez joined the Democratic Center Union party in 1979, serving among other in the city council of Madrid.

In 1986, Pérez ran in the Spanish general elections as candidate for the Partido Reformista Democrático. He attended Polytechnic University of Madrid.^[2]

In 1993, he was named president of OCP Construcciónes, S.A. After the fusion of OCP with Gines y Navarro into Actividades de Construcción y Servicios, S.A. (ACS) in 1997, he became president of the new company. sadsa

[edit] Real Madrid

Florentino Pérez first ran for the presidency of Real Madrid Club de Fútbol in the 19 February 1995 election. He campaigned on the poor financial situation of the club and the alleged mismanagement by the board extensively, but lost to the incumbent Ramón Mendoza by 700 votes.

[edit] First term

His second attempt was more successful when he took over as president in 2000, beating the current chairman at that time, Lorenzo Sanz. Sanz assumed that the recently won European Cups in 1998 and 2000 would give him enough credit to win the elections, but Pérez's campaign, once again highlighting the financial problems of the club and claims of mismanagement by the previous boards, proved otherwise. Pérez's promise to bring in Luís Figo from arch-rivals FC Barcelona also played a decisive role in the elections. Pérez was reelected in 2004 with 94.2% of the total votes.

Luís Figo also marked the start of Pérez's policy to bring one of the best football players in the world to Real Madrid each season. The strategy was initially known as that of Zidanes y Pavones - in which superstars would play alongside the Canteranos, but the players were soon popularly referred to as Galácticos. In 2001, Zinedine Zidane was signed from Juventus for a world record transfer fee of €73.5 million. He was followed by Ronaldo in 2002, David Beckham in 2003, Michael Owen in 2004, and Robinho in 2005. Initially, Pérez's policy worked to great success, because each Galáctico built their squads around the player, and had a more proper team balance of attack and defense. In his first years in office, Real Madrid won two Spanish Championships and its record ninth European Cup.

Pérez claimed success in clearing the club's debt; however, this was contradicted by director Ramón Calderón.

After the 2002–03 season, Pérez decided not to renew Vicente del Bosque's contract, despite Real capturing a 29th La Liga title. Del Bosque was able to balance the many different modern player egos in the star studded team. It was widely believed that there was a political split, with del Bosque and his players (Fernando Hierro, Fernando Morientes, Steve McManaman, and Claude Makélélé) on one side, and Pérez on the other. All of the aforementioned players left the club in 2003 in Pérez's shakeup bid to regain control.

In particular, Claude Makélélé, one of the best defensive midfielders and a key component to Real's successes, decided to ask for an improved contract with the support of teammates Zidane, Raúl, Steve McManaman, and Fernando Morientes. Up to this time, Makélélé was also one of Real Madrid's most under-paid members, earning a fraction of what was paid to the Galácticos, but Pérez flatly refused to consider Makélélé's request. Upset, Makélélé handed in a transfer request, whereupon he was promptly dispatched to Chelsea. Pérez infamously poured scorn on Makélélé's footballing abilities and proclaimed that Makélélé would not be missed, saying: "We will not miss Makélélé. His technique is average, he lacks the speed and skill to take the ball past opponents, and 90% of his distribution either goes backwards or sideways."

After Makélélé was sold, Pérez signed a number of high-profile attackers, including Michael Owen, Júlio Baptista, and Robinho, in accordance with his Galáctico policy. Unfortunately, all of the Galáticos were attacking players, with generally limited defensive roles and abilities, and Pérez failed to adequately replace Makélélé in the holding midfielder's role. Negotiations to sign Patrick Vieira from Arsenal in 2004 failed because of Pérez's refusal to pay high wages for "defensive players".

Several years after leaving Real, McManaman and Morientes stated that Makélélé was the most important and least appreciated midfielder, the latter saying "The loss of Makélélé was the beginning of the end for Los Galácticos... You can see that it was also the beginning of a new dawn for Chelsea." From the 2003–04 season onward, with the absence of del Bosque and Makélélé, Real Madrid failed to win a trophy.

Though Pérez's policy resulted in increased financial success based on the exploitation of the club's high marketing potential around the world, especially in Asia, it came under increasing criticism for being focused too much on marketing the Real Madrid brand and not enough on the football.

He announced his resignation on 27 February 2006, acknowledging that the team and the club as a whole needed a new direction.

[edit] Third term

On 14 May 2009, Pérez announced his candidacy for President of Real Madrid in a press conference at the Hotel Ritz Madrid.^[3] On 1 June 2009, given that he was the only candidate able to provide the €57,389,000 guarantee necessary to run for the presidency, Pérez was announced as the new president of Real Madrid.^[4][5]

Pérez has continued with the Galácticos policy pursued in his first term. On 8 June 2009, he bought Kaká from Milan for just under £60 million.^[6] On 11 June, Manchester United accepted an £80 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo, which would once again break the world record. On 25 June, Pérez and Real Madrid announced the signing of Valencia centre-back Raúl Albiol for €15 million.^[7] On 1 July, Pérez bought Karim Benzema from Olympique Lyonnais for at least £30 million and could rise to £35 million, depending on his success.

On 5 August, Real Madrid had confirmed the signing of Xabi Alonso from Liverpool^[8] for £30 million, becoming the second Liverpool player to join Real Madrid in the same transfer window after full-back Álvaro Arbeloa's £3.5 million switch to the Santiago Bernabéu in July.

[edit] Signings

Rank	Player	From	Transfer Fee (£ millions)	Transfer Fee (€ millions)	Year
1.	Cristiano Ronaldo	Manchester United	80.0[9]	94.0[10]	2009
2.	Kaká	Milan	56.8[11]	65.8[12]	2009
3.	Zinedine Zidane	Juventus	46.0[13]	76.0	2001
4.	Luís Figo	Barcelona	37.0[14]	58.5	2000
5.	Ronaldo	Internazionale	28.5[15]	43.0	2002
6.	David Beckham	Manchester United	24.5[16]	35.1	2003
7.	Karim Benzema	Lyon	30.0[11]	35.0[17]	2009
8.	Xabi Alonso	Liverpool	30	35.4[18]	2009
9.	Sergio Ramos	Sevilla	18.6	27.0[19]	2005
10.	Robinho	Santos	16.5[20]	24.0	2005
11.	Júlio Baptista	Sevilla	13.8[21]	20.0	2005
12.	Jonathan Woodgate	Newcastle	13.4[22]	19.8	2004
13.	Raúl Albiol	Valencia	12.8	15.0[23]	2009
14.	Michael Owen	Liverpool	8.0[24]	11.9	2004
15.	Álvaro Negredo	Almería	4.3	5.0[25]	2009
16.	Álvaro Arbeloa	Liverpool	3	4[26]	2009
17.	Esteban Granero	Getafe	3.4	4[27]	2009
18.	Antonio Cassano	Roma	3.8	5.5[28]	2006
19.	Pablo García	Zaragoza	2.7	4.0[29]	2005
20.	Thomas Gravesen	Everton	2.5[30]	3.6	2005
			442.4	592.2

[edit] See also

• Real Madrid
• Grupo ACS

[edit] References

Preceded by Lorenzo Sanz	President of Real Madrid 2000–2006	Succeeded by Fernando Martín
Preceded by Vicente Boluda	President of Real Madrid 2009–Present	Succeeded by Incumbent