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Spanish newspaper El Confidencial has published leaked audios recorded in 2006 featuring Real Madrid president Florentino Perez heavily criticizing club legends Raul Gonzalez and Iker Casillas.
“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 support him so much. He is one of the biggest frauds and the other is Raul, the two biggest Real Madrid frauds are first Raul and second Casillas,” says Perez in those audios.
He also had some words to say about 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,” he adds.
Those comments are extremely controversial even if they’re published 15 years after they were recorded. While it’s clear that Perez’s relationship with the players was damaged when he first stepped down as Real Madrid’s president back in 2006, him saying those words could actually hurt his relationship with these two legends even more now.
Raul is now Real Madrid Castilla’s head coach and is thought to be one of the candidates to coach the first team when he’s needed. His relationship with Perez was now better than it was years ago, but Raul has the right to feel disappointed when he hears Perez saying those words about him. Same can be said about Casillas, who made his return to the club last year to work as an advisor.