Real Madrid is a Spanish football club, a member-owned non-profit organisation with around 100,000 members. Membership costs €179 a year, though a season ticket for matches can cost up to €3,200 on top. There is a long waiting list. Florentino Pérez, a 79-year-old construction magnate, has been president for most of the past 25 years. Under him the club has been the world's dominant football team, winning each of the European Champions League, the World Club Championship and the Spanish league seven times in that period. Revenues of €1.2bn ($1.4bn) are ten times higher than in 2000.
In 2025-26 the team had no grand trophy for two years; arch-rivals Barcelona took the league title. Kylian Mbappé is the team's highest-paid player. The expansion of the Bernabéu stadium, originally budgeted at €575m, has cost €1.3bn and counting. Mr Pérez's plan for a European Super League was squashed. On May 11th 2026 Mr Pérez held his first press conference in more than a decade, attacking the press, referees and a "campaign in the shadows" against him, and announced a fresh election for the presidency only 16 months into a four-year term. His challenger is Enrique Riquelme, who owns an energy business and is linked to Ignacio Galán, an old foe of Mr Pérez.
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