The Real Madrid president, Florentino Perez, is expected to submit an eye-watering bid for a ‘total Galactico’, putting Chelsea on red alert.
Enzo Fernandez could leave Chelsea this summer(Image: Photo by Gustavo Pagano/Getty Images)
Florentino Perez has been re-elected as Real Madrid president, and it could have a huge bearing on the future of Enzo Fernandez. The Blues midfielder has been heavily linked with a move to the Santiago Bernabeu for a while now, as Jose Mourinho gears up for a new era.
football.london understands that Fernandez wants to leave the Blues this summer. Chelsea want to keep the Argentina international, whom they signed from Benfica for £106.7m in 2023, but they won’t stand in his way if they receive an offer worth £120m.
It’s understood that Los Blancos are interested in signing Fernandez, but, as it stands, it’s unclear whether they would be willing to pay the asking price. Now that Perez has since claimed victory in the first contested Real Madrid presidential election since 2006, he’s expected to formally appoint Mourinho as the new head coach.
During his campaign, the 79-year-old, who had held the position since 2009 and between 2000 and 2006, also announced the arrivals of Ibrahima Konaté and Denzel Dumfries, on the basis that he would remain in power. Perez promised to submit a bid worth over €150m (£129.6m) for an unnamed ‘Galactico’ signing, too.
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As it stands, it’s unclear who the Los Blancos president plans to sign, but he’s offered a few hints. Last week, all but ruling out the prospect of signing Fernandez, Perez said: “On Tuesday, I’m going to make an offer to an important Champions League club, for a great player.
“It would be the most money that Real Madrid have paid for a player in history. At least 150 million euros,” he added. “It isn’t [Michael] Olise, he’s a great player, but it isn’t Olise. It isn’t [Jeremy] Doku, it isn’t [Erling] Haaland.
“It isn’t [Harry] Kane. It’s a player who plays from the midfield, or further forwards. And he isn’t a Premier League player. He’s a total Galactico. But first we’ll talk to his club.”
When Perez beat his rival candidate, Enrique Riquelme, to the presidency, he outlined his ambition to win trophies and make history. He said: “We’ve obtained the second-best result in the history of Real Madrid.
“It’s an extraordinary result… Today, Real Madrid won. We’ve shown an example of democracy to the world. We’ll keep working for Real Madrid to keep winning trophies… I want to thank everyone who participated. Together, we have a lot of history left to make.”
Enzo Fernandez and Cole Palmer(Image: Photo by Michael Regan – The FA/The FA via Getty Images)
Although Chelsea have been given a huge boost to their hopes of fending off interest from Real Madrid, Fernandez still faces an uncertain future at Stamford Bridge. In April, Javier Pastore revealed that talks over a new contract had stalled.
“There have been talks about renewing his contract, yes,” said the Argentine’s agent. “We started discussing it around December or January, but we couldn’t reach an agreement.
“As Enzo’s contract still has six years to run, we decided not to renew it because the terms weren’t right for us or for the player. Given what Enzo is capable of today, he deserves much more than he’s currently earning.
“We haven’t reached an agreement, and it may be that this annoyed the club, given that he is a hugely important player, but these are things that have to be managed.
“We felt that rather than renewing on terms that wouldn’t make the player happy, it was better to leave things as they are and focus on playing and performing well.
“We don’t want to get into discussions about figures, contracts and negotiations when the timing wasn’t right. Our plan after the World Cup is to meet with Chelsea again and, if there is no agreement, to explore other options.”
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