New Real president to target Fabregas and Robben

Real Madrid this afternoon announced Ramon Calderon as the winner of the presidential elections at the club.

He has spoken brazenly of recruiting Arsenal youngster Cesc Fabregas and Arjen Robben of Chelsea to the club.

Calderon announced late yesterday evening he had prevailed but Real refused to confirm his triumph, saying there were postal votes to be counted.

The club’s board subsequently decided not to consider the postal votes, saying they were creating controversy as well as potentially making the process last much longer.

A Real Madrid statement said: “The electoral board of Real Madrid football club unanimously declares that the candidature that has received more electoral votes and which is headed by Ramon Calderon has won the elections.

“He will be unveiled as president at seven o’clock tonight.”

The statement was read aloud by Ernesto Toth, secretary of the electoral board.

Calderon received 8,344 votes while Juan Palacios was second with 8,098.

“Regarding the situation created and considering the time limits, we have decided to exclude the postal votes,” Toth said.

The presidency has been in question since the end of Florentino Perez's six-year tenure in February, when he resigned as he felt the club needed a new direction.

Vice-president Fernando Martin was immediately promoted to replace him but his stint as president lasted only two months before he too resigned.

Luis Gomez-Montejano, being the eldest member of the board, was then put in charge on an interim basis until Sunday’s elections.

Calderon’s chief task as the new Real supremo will be to make sure the team start winning trophies again.

Real – arguably the biggest club in the world – have not claimed any major silverware since clinching the league title in 2003.

During his campaign, Calderon told voters of his intention to bring former manager Fabio Capello back to the Bernabeu.

Capello, currently the Juventus coach, led Real to the Spanish title in the 1996-97 campaign.