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

Barcelona"Unusual", "grotesque", "bewildering". 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 at Real Madrid. The president and candidate for re-election of the white club lashed out at everyone and everything, singling out media outlets and journalists by name and surname, whom he accused of waging war against him. Hours later, the first front pages 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 diario Abc -which Pérez announced he would unsubscribe from- and the defunct portal Relevo. And the response was forceful: "Florentino covers up Real Madrid's failures with an excessive attack on Abc", the Madrid daily headlined on its front page this Wednesday. 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 dressing room divided, into an offensive against this newspaper and other media outlets to which he accuses of being conspiring against the entity", he adds. All of 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 it calls "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 can be read. And it adds that Florentino "dedicated a good part of his speech to creating 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 in the club, even if it inconveniences its president", concludes the text.

The most expressive headlines, as expected, have been those from the sports press. "Disconcertment", 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 complaint made by El Mundo Deportivo, which exclaims on the front page with a "Delirious". "Real farce", adds the newspaper Sport, which states that the Madrid president showed "his worst image" this Tuesday. As, on the other hand, has saved itself qualifiers 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 "Florentino naked" 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 that - like As in sports - refrains from adjectives is La Razón, which headlines with "Florentino calls elections 'in defense of the members'" and uses the subtitle to explain that the president will run for reelection.

If we look at the airwaves, one of the expected reactions in the Real Madrid 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".