How Florentino Perez rebuilt Real Madrid

Less than two years ago, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez shifted uncomfortably in his seat at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu as most of the 80,000 Blancos supporters around him chanted ‘Florentino Dimision’ (‘Florentino Resign’).

But with Madrid now heading into Saturday’s final against Juventus as favourites to win a third Champions League trophy in four years, with the 2016/17 La Liga title already secured, very few complaints about Perez’s leadership are being heard anywhere.

Those chants came in November 2015, as Barcelona won the first La Liga ‘Clasico’ of the season 4-0. Perez’s second term seemed about to collapse, just as a decade earlier he had stepped down in ignominy as his first ‘galacticos’ project crashed and burned.