Florentino Perez: Three years of achievements and challenges

Florentino Perez meets today three years as president since his inauguration in his second spell at the club (the first was from 2000 to 2006). He returned to the presidency under the slogan, "The illusion returns" and Florentino has not broken his word at this time. He chose to stay at the background and do not talk to the media so much as in his first stage, but with the decision to stand up to the best team at that time, FC Barcelona: "His great campaign does not scare me but that motivates me". In that spirit, president undertook an initial investment of 254 million euros in signings: "We must do in a year what has not been done in three", he repeated.

Florentino Perez with Cristiano Ronaldo

With these intentions, Florentino Perez signed Jorge Valdano as the 'prime minister' of the club, who served as general director with Miguel Pardeza as sporting director. Valdano chose Pellegrini to the bench. The Chilean coach got the second best score in the league in the history of the Spanish league with 96 points, but did not achieve the championship, the team was defeated in the Spanish cup by Alcorcon (a third division team) and was eliminated in the last-16 round of Champions League against Lyon (for the sixth consecutive year). Huge reasons for his departure.

Then, Florentino Perez signed Jose Mourinho from Inter Milan by eight million euros. In the first year with the Portuguese coach, the team reached the semifinals of the Champions League, ended second in the Spanish league and won the Cup. In May last year the president fired Valdano and Mourinho remained as general manager. Unlike the first stage, he gives the coach the absolute power. Thus, in the second year of Mourinho, the team has won the league with the highest score in history (100 points), was close to reach the Champions League final after defeating Bayern Munchen in the 2nd leg of the semifinals, as well as in the Spanish Cup against Barca. Florentino has managed to keep intact the illusion of fans.

After reaching sport stability with Mourinho, coach of the team until 2016, now Florentino Perez and the board must face other challenges to ensure continuity of the club at the top of the ranking of the best European teams. These are the most important challenges:

• Bernabeu Project. Florentino introduced in the assembly of September the plan to cover the stadium with a retractable roof. It will also create a shopping center on the facade facing Castellana street.
• Valdebebas Residence. The construction works will begin this summer. The building for the first team will be available from 2014. 7,000 square meters with 60 rooms, restaurant and medical center. The youth teams will have another building with 7,500 square meters with 40 double and triple rooms.
• Events of 110th anniversary. There is a extensive list of events. On Sunday, the Heart Classic Match and July 14, the tennis match between Nadal and Djokovic. There is a traveling exhibition with club trophies in Spain.
• Theme Park. A marina imitating the shape of the shield of Real Madrid, a football stadium with an open side to the sea, a museum, a five star hotel and a beach resort. This will be the 'Real Madrid Resort Island' which will open in 2015 in the UAE.
• Schools and Foundation. Real Madrid has distributed 111 schools of the Realmadrid Foundation in Spain and 202 in other 62 countries. In total, 50,227 people. The club plans to continue these activities to fulfill its social responsibility.

Project Bernabeu: The stadium will be covered with a retractable roof