"Creepy" and "delusional": this is what the media say about Florentino Pérez

Barcelona"Unusual", "grotesque", "disconcerting". These are some of the adjectives the media have chosen to define Florentino Pérez's press conference this Tuesday, a meeting full of reproaches with which he announced the call for elections for Real Madrid. The president of the white club and candidate for re-election shot against everyone and everything, and singled out media outlets and journalists by name and surname, whom he accused of waging war against him. Hours later, the first covers of newspapers and written and radio editorials reacting to his words were published.

The main target of the attacks was the Vocento group, publisher of the newspaper Abc– from which Pérez announced he would unsubscribe– and the now-defunct portal Relevo. And the response was forceful: "Florentino covers up Real Madrid's failures with an exaggerated attack on Abc", the Madrid daily headlines this Wednesday on its front page. And it dedicates the subtitle to drawing even more blood: "The president turns the press conference to announce the call for elections after the worst season in decades, without titles and with the locker room divided, into an offensive against this newspaper and other media outlets to which he accuses of being conspiring against the entity", it adds. All this after, in parallel to the press conference, the resignation of the president of Vocento was announced.

In the editorial, titled "Respect Real Madrid from within", the newspaper harshly criticizes a press conference that it describes as "erratic and at times disconnected from reality": "The president of Real Madrid confirmed that he – like his club – is going through the most delicate moment of his entire tenure at the helm of the entity," it reads. And it adds that Florentino "dedicated a good part of his speech to building imaginary enemies" and to "looking externally for the causes of problems whose root lies, above all, within the club itself." "Real Madrid is an institution loved [...] by this house and by its readers. Precisely for this reason, we will continue to explain everything that happens at the club, even if it inconveniences its president," the text concludes.

The most expressive headlines, as expected, have been those of the sports press. "Disconcert", headlines in very large letters the Marca (also from the Vocento group), which describes the appearance as "grotesque" and criticizes that Florentino made no self-criticism. It is the same reproach that Mundo Deportivo makes, which exclaims on the front page with a "Delirious". "Real farce", adds the newspaper Sport, which states that the president of Madrid showed this Tuesday "his worst image". As, on the other hand, has saved itself adjectives and opens its front page with the phrase "They will have to throw me out with bullets", pronounced by Florentino.

Regarding the rest of the generalist press, beyond Abc, El País headlines on the front page that Pérez "explodes against the press in an unusual intervention". El Mundo has opted for a "Naked and raw Florentino" and defines the white president as "incoherent and repetitive", while La Vanguardia has chosen the formula "Florentino unleashed" and highlights the "victimhood" of this Tuesday's speech in Valdebebas. The only media outlet that – like As in sports – avoids adjectives is La Razón, which headlines "Florentino calls elections in defense of the members" and uses the subtitle to explain that the president will run for re-election.

If we look at the airwaves, one of the expected reactions in the Madridista environment was that of Juanma Castaño (COPE), to whom Florentino asked for "a little consideration for the best club in history". "I take this message as that of a listener who, in an educated, clear and transparent way, asks us to take care of Real Madrid", Castaño said shortly after on air. But he added: "You take care of it, you take care of it, because really sometimes it's necessary".