Enrique Riquelme: ‘The sale of Real Madrid remains a red line for me’

Enrique Riquelme says that “the sale of Real Madrid remains a red line” for him. A former candidate for the club’s presidency and Florentino Pérez’s rival last summer, he has broken his silence in an interview with Expansión.

According to reported information, Riquelme does not clearly say whether he would run for the presidency again, but indicates that a possible sale of the club would lead him to mobilise. Asked about the election, in which he received 35% of the vote, the businessman says he accepts the result and supports the team “like any other madridista”, rather than continuing a day-to-day battle after the vote.

Regarding the prospect of another candidacy, Riquelme first calls for unity within the Madrid fanbase, despite aspects he does not like. He explains that he ran because what he was seeing raised institutional concerns for him, while leaving time to determine whether he will return to the race.

He nevertheless makes clear that the sale of the club remains the threshold he would not allow to pass without reacting. Riquelme says he intends to closely monitor any possible change to the statutes that could allow such a sale and states that he would mobilise if he believed that scenario was taking place. He adds that he does not see it happening for now. As for a future electoral contest with Florentino Pérez, he concludes that “we will see what happens in a few years”.