Joseph Lawrence 🔰

[Anish Moonka @anishmoonka]

Real Madrid hasn't won a major trophy in two years. It just became the highest-earning sports team in history anyway, beating the Dallas Cowboys. The man behind it isn't a coach or a player. He builds skyscrapers for a living, and he doesn't even own the club.

His name is Florentino Pérez, and he runs the biggest construction company in Spain, one of the largest anywhere. Real Madrid belongs to its fans, about 90,000 of them, who vote every few years on who runs the place. This Sunday they picked him again. It was the first time in twenty years that anyone even ran against him, and he'll be in charge until 2030.

His smartest move had nothing to do with football. When he took over in 2000, the club was buried under close to 300 million euros of debt. So he talked the city into letting developers build office towers on Real Madrid's old training ground. The land sold, four skyscrapers went up that still stand on the Madrid skyline, and the debt was gone almost overnight, with plenty left to start buying the best players alive. (Years later the EU looked into whether the city had overpaid on purpose to bail the club out. Nothing came of it.)

Then came the players fans still argue about, one global superstar nearly every summer: Figo, Zidane, Ronaldo, Beckham. Pérez never pretended it was only about football. When his marketing chief heard Manchester United would sell Beckham for about 35 million euros, he called Pérez yelling that it was a steal. United had priced a footballer. Madrid was buying a worldwide brand it figured was worth ten times more in shirts and sponsorship deals. Within a year of signing him, Madrid had passed United as the most profitable club on earth. Pérez wanted his club to run like Ferrari, a name so strong the money keeps coming whether you win on Saturday or not.

The new stadium is the same idea in concrete. He spent 1.3 billion euros rebuilding it over one thing that bugged him: a football ground hosts maybe 25 games a year and sits dark the other 340 days. His version barely sleeps. It hosts concerts and tours now, and last November it held an American football game. The pitch even slides underground so the place can be rented out without wrecking the grass. Running flat out, it's built to bring in close to a million euros a day.

He has still won plenty on the field, seven Champions League titles across his two spells, from Zidane's famous volley in 2002 to the trophies in 2022 and 2024. But the number that explains him best is simpler. Last year, with nothing big to show for it on the pitch, the club's value still climbed 41 percent. So this week 90,000 fans gave him four more years, and he still doesn't own a single share of the club he turned into the highest-earning team in world sport.

[DM @DMLions]

Lincoln a bigger story than Wrexham

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@h0mberto i’d like to see him name a better one (he will say Kante)

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

there is a strong case that Fede Valverde has just produced the greatest ever performance from a midfielder in the history of football

[Adam McKola @AdamMcKola]

They spent all week trying to tell us they'd beat 2008 Manchester United and couldn't even beat 2026 Manchester United. 😭

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@PLforIndia @ManUtd @Arsenal embarrassing post

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@MattWalshBlog Ewan is good in it

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@LyesBouzidi10 i don’t understand why people are asking for a retake. it’s literally the same as missing the penalty. the only time a retake is ever applicable is if the keeper goes off his line and the player misses or has it saved. bro had one job and failed, tough but fair

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@atletiuniverse I decided. it’s a double touch. he might as well have flicked it up and hit it on the volley also you’re the smallest club in Spain

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@P8BCN correct, he was in his prime his entire career and was incredible the whole time

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@AmorimEra_ he does this every once in a while and then goes missing for years. everyone needs to relax

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

Disgrace absolute disgrace of a decision in Madrid

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@DrixRMFC let’s see in the Champions League who turns up

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@AmorimEra_ @Match_Memories de ligt wasn’t that bad. the penalty was pretty unlucky and he probably shouldn’t have slid in like that for the gakpo goal, but otherwise he was solid

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@WelBeast yes

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@idoxvi His help came from Sergio Ramos that season.

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@BuenoForMiami i like it. it’s nice when it’s raining also

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@FCBSpooky_ United is the worst, but Barca and Chelsea are by far the next most ridiculous

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

@aa9skillz

[Joseph Lawrence 🔰 @joewlawrence]

Arsenal’s corner strategy is brilliant