Manchester City will only have to wait a few more days for things to calm down at Real Madrid after a wild week in the Spanish capital.
MADRID, SPAIN - MAY 25: Enrique Riquelme attends the Media during the opening of his new campaign headquarters for his candidacy for the presidency of Real Madrid next to Bernabeu stadium on May 25, 2026, in Madrid, Spain. (Photo By Oscar J. Barroso/Europa Press via Getty Images)
Manchester City have been caught up in the frenzy of a Real Madrid election
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Wednesday saw something rarer than a blue moon emerge from Manchester City: a legal threat to Spain that wasn't aimed at long-time critic and La Liga boss Javier Tebas. Instead, the Blues were seriously bothered about the claims of a Real Madrid presidential candidate promising to bring Erling Haaland and Rodri to the Bernabeu.
Despite having struck up the Clasico of the Champions League over recent years, City and Real get on as clubs. There is mutual respect between the two hierarchies, and when the teams do play Real president Florentino Perez can usually be found deep in conversation with City chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak.
It says a lot then for City to issue as strong a statement as they did on Thursday morning. But then elections make everything a bit more peculiar, especially at football clubs where the political equivalent of Count Binface can grab headlines if they say something sensational enough.
Perez is an enormously heavy favourite to get re-elected, so it felt like a Hail Mary from outsider Enrique Riquelme to promise Haaland and Rodri - and he likely won't have to care about the consequences because he almost certainly won't be elected. It hasn't helped City though in their first summer without Pep Guardiola in ten years as they wait to appoint Enzo Maresca as their new coach.
Not only are negotiations with Chelsea over Maresca taking considerably longer than expected but Rodri and Josko Gvardiol have both spoken publicly about their futures in a way that could have been more committed to the Blues. As some players consider what is best for them next season, the last thing City need is baseless rumours being started about even more of their best players.
Thankfully for everyone from a City perspective, the circus is about to close. Voting for the next president will take place on Sunday in Madrid and after that there will be no need for the wild electioneering that has ramped up over the last few weeks.
City will know where they stand, especially if it is Perez given he has been president since 2009. That doesn't mean that all noise from the Spanish capital will die down - Perez has long been an admirer of Rodri, for example - but the lawyers and the fans at the Etihad can stand down safe that there won't be any more nasty surprises coming for them.
That will be a relief for City in a summer where they are working hard to make sure that business is as close to normal as usual following Guardiola's departure. Al Mubarak used his annual address to make clear that the club still believes it is on an upward trajectory.
“We are far from peaked. Eighteen years, I look at where the club was in 2008, and then I look at every part of these last 18 years. Roberto Mancini brought that first Premier League title to this club, we will never forget those moments, it was a great period then, a first FA Cup win in many, many years," he said.
"And then Manuel [Pellegrini] came in, same thing, another Premier League title and more success. And then Pep came in, and it was getting that mindset, that DNA of a winning club. And now, this club is the way we all know it right now. We are used to, because it’s in our DNA, winning. This is a club that is designed, built to win. What Pep has given us has taken us to the next level, and I think we’re so thankful for what he’s helped build here.”