Who is the businessman everyone is talking about who wants to face Florentino Pérez?

MadridEnrique Riquelme Vives (Coix, Alicante, 1989) is the man of the moment in Madrid since this Tuesday afternoon Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez implicitly mentioned him during the highly commented press conference in which he announced that he was calling early elections. At one point during the appearance, the veteran white executive spoke of a businessman with a "South American" accent, although he later qualified that he had a "Mexican" accent, who was willing to challenge him for the presidency of Real Madrid. He was referring to Riquelme.

The truth, however, is that this businessman is from a town in the Valencian Country with just over 7,000 inhabitants, although his professional career has forced him to travel on numerous occasions to Latin America, especially to Mexico, Ecuador, Chile, Panama, and Colombia. Riquelme presides over the water and renewable energy company Cox –it bears this name after his hometown– with a strong presence in the region where, in fact, he took his first steps as an entrepreneur: first in Brazil, coinciding with the World Cup and the Olympic Games, and then in Panama, where he founded the photovoltaic company Grupo Sol. In 2014, back in Spain, he founded Cox, and just ten years later he has managed to take it to the stock market. "The sun king." That is how Forbes magazine christened him in 2018, when it dedicated a cover to him.

Forbes in 2018, when it dedicated a cover to him.

"I preside over a company of Spanish origin, but with a Latin American soul," Riquelme himself summarized three months ago, during his speech at the International Economic Forum for Latin America and the Caribbean. In fact, in the case of Mexico, he finalized the definitive purchase of Iberdrola's subsidiary in the country this April for 3.7 billion dollars –perhaps that is why Florentino Pérez spoke of a "Mexican" accent.

This is not the first time that Riquelme has appeared in the running to take over the presidency of Madrid. It already happened in 2021, when he himself announced his intention to run for election. "Now or in the future," he said then. However, the wish came to nothing a few days later, when Pérez announced that he was moving the club's elections forward –they were scheduled for June and were held express-style in April–. At the time, Riquelme himself described the calendar as "inexplicable" and "unjustified." "Running was his wish, but he withdrew his candidacy," a source who followed that process closely explains to el ARA.

A pair to the club's board

Riquelme has been a member of the white club for more than 20 years and, considering the stratospheric growth of his business, it is seen as feasible that he has the capacity to present the 187 million euros as a guarantee that any candidate for the presidency of Real Madrid must have (15% of the club's budget, as stated in the statutes). He is attributed a net worth of 460 million euros, according to the annual ranking ofEl Mundo.

In this path, the fact that he comes from a wealthy family from Alicante and has obtained multi-million dollar income thanks to the real estate, construction, and agri-food business has helped. But also the fact that he has had a father –Enrique Riquelme de la Torre– who instilled in him a passion for the white club, something he boasts about on his Instagram profile. Riquelme senior was on the Real Madrid board during the era of Ramón Calderón between 2006 and 2009 and later with Vicente Boluda, when he was interim president.

To all of this is added an interest in football in general, but also in Formula 1 or tennis. Thus, Riquelme has proudly stated in more than one interview about the sponsorship of the Municipal Football School of his hometown, but also the sponsorship of Orihuela or even the motorcyclist Alberto Fernández. Since 2025, he sponsors the Rafa Nadal Academy Team by Cox (paddle tennis) and the Team Rafa of electric boats. "For me it is an honor that the sports schools bear the name of the company [Cox]," he said in an interview to the local media Aquí Medios de Comunicación. Him and who else?

But this Tuesday Florentino Pérez spoke in plural: "Some children who want to run [to preside over Real Madrid] [...], who speak with the electricity companies [to have the guarantee]". And he challenged them to do so: "This is the opportunity I offer them".

Here, all eyes point to the connection between Cox and Iberdrola, and specifically to who has led the sale of the electricity company's subsidiary in Mexico: David Mesonero (Salamanca, 1980), a director at the company presided over by Ignacio Sánchez Galán, with whom Florentino has a historic duel marked by the attempt to acquire through ACS, the construction company he also presides, an important part of Iberdrola.

A businessman linked to the world of football consulted by ARA believes that it is not difficult to "find directors with sufficient assets to preside over Madrid". The problem, he believes, is the "power of influence" that Florentino has. This could be Riquelme's acid test, who in any case does not hide from boasting about his network of "vip" friends –from Antonio Banderas to Iker Casillas–, nor from being an ally of the Vatican. "I have the opportunity to share the work and effort with the Pope [Francis] about three times a year", Riquelme explained in 2020 about Cox's role with the Scholas Foundation.