Florentino Pérez can already tick a box from his election manifesto. If he won the Real Madrid presidential election, he promised a €150 million offer and he has delivered it: he made it official on Tuesday afternoon when he announced his move for Atlético de Madrid striker Julián Álvarez in a club statement. End of story, and back to following his plan regardless of what members may have asked for during the recent election campaign.
Did Florentino Pérez really want to make a €150 million bid for a top player, or was this a promise he wanted to get out of the way as quickly as possible? Was there a genuine intention to sign a striker such as Julián Álvarez? Will he now issue a statement for every transfer attempt from this point forward? It has looked more like a formality designed to allow him to claim that promise has been fulfilled.
The bid for Julián Álvarez fits perfectly with that latter interpretation. A great player, an eye-catching figure, a rejection that was virtually guaranteed, and an outcome that allows every party to maintain its position. Atlético keep their star and have even mocked the move on social media after their neighbours announced it with great fanfare. Meanwhile, Florentino’s Real Madrid does not alter its plans while still being able to claim it delivered on its promise.
It is difficult not to think that the Real Madrid president could predict the outcome in advance. Not because the offer was too low, but because the chances of Atlético de Madrid negotiating one of their most valuable assets with Real Madrid were close to zero. And that is where the cleverness of the operation lies. The promise was not to sign a player, but to try. It was not to bring someone in. It was to submit an offer. A semantic difference that proves decisive. Fans were thinking about attempts for Haaland, Olise, Rodri or Vitinha – not Julián Álvarez. Without doubt, this is not the Florentino Pérez, nor the Real Madrid, of the past, when the club would go after a superstar after winning an election.
Perhaps Real Madrid will enter the market for names capable of exciting the fanbase. Perhaps it will not. But it is hard to believe that the club’s sporting strategy has changed by a single comma because of the election. Sometimes, politics and sport look far too similar.
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