Some leaked audios about Perez emerged in the last few days, and a war between him and the the journalist Jose Antonio Abellan and the newspaper El Confidencial begun! Everything started with a leaked audio from 2006 where Florentino Perez had some very unkind things to say about Real Madrid legends Iker Casillas and Raul Gonzalez. The president of Los Blancos was far from impressed with the pair and didn't hold back in his criticisms of two players he felt were undeserving of their status.
"Casillas is not a Real Madrid standard goalkeeper, what can I say? He's not and never has been". He has been a big failure of ours. The problem is people adore him, love him, talk to him, they defend him so much. You can tell when things aren’t going so well with his girlfriend as well; he’s absent [mentally]. He’s like a child… he’s like a lapdog, a puppet, something childlike.
He continued with a few harsh words to about Casillas’ girlfriend Sara Carbonero as well: “This girl, I don’t trust her one bit,” said Perez before adding. This girl, these girls, you know what they’re after… they go crazy for fame,” Marca quoted from the leaked files.
However, Perez did say that he got on well with the goalkeeper: “People think I don’t like him, but the thing is I believe if he’d committed himself more he’d be the number one because, despite being a bit short, he has some exceptional qualities. But take the game against Barcelona with LaLiga at stake, the one we won 4-2… that Friday he arrived late to training… he’d had an argument with his girlfriend, ridiculous stuff. He is one of the biggest frauds and the other is Raul, the two biggest Real Madrid frauds are first Raul and second Casillas", Perez continued with the comments published by El Confidencial.
He continued on Raul: “ Zidane’s a great guy... and Beckham and Ronaldo. But then there are the others that think that … let’s see. Raul is a bad person. He thinks Madrid is his and he uses everything there is in Madrid, developing everything for his own benefit. Him and his agent. They are to blame for Madrid not doing well”.
These two club icons were singled out, but Perez also revealed a poor opinion of the players in general: "The players are very selfish, you can't count on them for anything. If you do, you've made a mistake and they'll let you down, it's ridiculous. I have an awful view of the players", said Perez. The comments came in 2006, when Florentino Perez stood down as Real Madrid president and put particular blame on Raul as part of the reason behind why he arrived at that decision.
The club released a statement in the behalf of Florentino Perez on Tuesday. The statement wrote: Following the article published by El Confidencial that features comments that I have been credited as having made, I believe that it is important to clarify that:
- The published quotes were part of conversations secretly recorded by Mr José Antonio Abellán, who has been trying to sell the recordings for many years without any success. I find it surprising that they have been published today by El Confidencial, despite the time that has elapsed.
- They are isolated quotes that were part of conversations and have been taken out of the wider context in which they were made.
- I understand that the fact that they have been published now, so many years on from the time the conversations took place, owes to my involvement as one of the driving forces behind the Super League.
- I have placed the matter in the hands of my lawyers, who are examining the course of action to be taken.
However, this declaration did not calm down the situation, as more audio clips from Florentino Perez were leaked shortly after. It was the second time in less than 24 hours and this time the victims were Cristiano Ronaldo and Jose Mourinho. The Florentino Perez leaked audio clips continued and it seems no one is safe from his scathing behind-closed-doors comments.
The most recent quotes, dating from two conversations, the most recent in October 2012, published on Wednesday morning, see the Real Madrid president take aim at several of the Portuguese stars at the club. The content of the leaked audio recordings, released once again by El Confidencial, includes some damning comments towards Ronaldo and Mourinho in particular in 2012, when both were at the club.
"Ronaldo is crazy. The guy is an idiot, he's sick," said Perez. He continued: “You think this guy is normal, but he's not. If he was, he wouldn't do all the things he does. The last stupid thing, which everyone in the world saw... why do you think he'd do something so stupid?"
Perez also slammed both Ronaldo and Mourinho for having massive egos and being blinkered to reality: "Jorge Mendes has no control over Ronaldo and it's the same with Mourinho - none at all. Even for interviews, they don't listen to him. These are two guys with terrible egos, spoilt the pair of them, who don't see the reality because they could both earn a lot more money if things were different. They are both abnormal because we are talking about a lot of money in terms of image rights. And with that face they have, that challenging glare, the fact that no one likes them... if the publicity was different, everything changes," Perez insisted.
Furthermore, Ronaldo and Mourinho were not the only Portuguese that Perez had some choice comments for, with Fabio Coentrao also coming in for criticism: "He's nuts, that's one of the effects of Real Madrid. He's another mindless one and Madrid eats guys like that. Right now, he's scared and Mourinho is an idiot. It's not that he doesn't want to play... Well, he's a little stupid, driving without a licence. The pressure has got to him and that's because he's sick but the other one doesn't care about that".
Staying with the theme, the Real Madrid chief also had something to say about Jorge Mendes' role in Pepe's transfer to Los Blancos in 2007, which came during the presidency of Ramon Calderon: "That the 30 million [euros] have left here and arrived there, no doubt, but now you have to look at the bank it's ended up in. He does that with Jorge Mendes, the representative of Porto's president, Jorge Nuno Pinto da Costa. With him everything is odd. Mendes pops up and he'd pay him as he's the Porto president's alibi. He and Mendes got money from the Russian [Roman Abramovich] with the Mourinho deal and the Ricardo Carvalho and Paulo Ferreira ones... and that money they take it to Switzerland. Someone mixed up in all this should get mad and they have to give us a clue about that account in Switzerland", he said.
New leaks continued to emerge, showing Florentino Perez criticising yet more football figures, this time Vicente del Bosque. In the latest comments revealed by El Confidencial, from conversations in 2006, Perez mocked Del Bosque for his lack of ability and laughed at the idea of him one day coaching the Spanish national team.
"He doesn't know how to coach, nor does he know about tactics. He's a fool. No one offers Vicente del Bosque work because they all know he's not a coach. The Del Bosque stuff is the biggest lie I've seen in my life. Ask the Besiktas president Yildirim Demiroren what he felt. Del Bosque isn't a coach, Jose Antonio Camacho is."
Perez went on to state that Del Bosque, who was Real Madrid's first-team head coach between 1999 and 2003, couldn't handle the stars in Los Blancos' dressing room: "Figo arrived and became close with Raul, and between them and Hierro they ran the squad. Poor Vicente, he didn't belong there. They say he'll take over the national team, that's just what they need. Del Bosque, you know?"
On the other hand, it was exactly Vicente del Bosque, who would join Spain a couple of years later and would go on to win the World Cup in 2010 and the European Championship in 2012.
As revealed by the media in the last few hours, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is preparing to file an official lawsuit against the journalist Jose Antonio Abellan and the newspaper El Confidencial for releasing those audio clips from his private conversations. The President declared that the lawsuit will be in defence of honour, privacy and self-image after 24 hours in which up to four audio clips were published. Abellan himself also responded to the Real Madrid head. Following the public accusations of the Real Madrid president, the journalist took to Twitter to describe the situation as ‘a circus’: "I've just got back from walking my dogs, John and Bruce, around the hills, to find this circus. This is crazy. Everything published can be found in my 2015 book 'Assault on Real Madrid'. Florentino doesn't give explanations, and instead wants people to shoot the person who he believes to be the messenger. I'll explain more tomorrow on @LaJunglaRadio".
The fans have of course not reacted well on this situation and most of them have put the blame on the President. It’s very unpleasant to hear such negative words on such important people of Real Madrid. These people have given a lot for the club and the fans and deserve much more respect. However, everything is to be verified! Another negative aspect of this situation is that it will strongly affect the environment at the club. Real Madrid is not having a very good period with the team left uncompleted and in need of new players that would guarantee a fruitful season. Instead of hearing good news about the possible improvement of the team, the fans are hearing stuff that do not give any help at all. Contrariwise, they only bring trouble and displeasure...!
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