Surprise elections are coming at Real Madrid after the club confirmed on Sunday afternoon that long-serving president Florentino Perez would face a challenge from renewable energy entrepreneur Enrique Riquelme.Club statutes mandate that the club’s approximately 100,000 socio members must now choose between the two candidates in a vote which must be held over the next fortnight.Perez remains a big favourite to keep the role, however his plan to reappoint Jose Mourinho appears to be on hold for the moment.Two weeks back there was no sign of any upcoming elections. Perez’s current term had four more years to run and while many around the club were unhappy at how a dramatic and disappointing 2025-26 season was winding to a close, the long-serving Perez’s position appeared secure.Then came his surreal press conference on May 12, at which he talked about unnamed figures conspiring against him in the shadows and said he welcomed a challenge from anybody who wanted to run for the role.Perez did not name any individual, but regularly referred to one person “with a Mexican accent” who “talks with electricity companies” and was behind “a very organised campaign”.That was a questionable reference to Riquelme, the founder of renewable energy company Cox Energy. Cox has extensive interests in Mexico, and the 37-year-old has previously spoken openly about his ambitions to one day become Madrid president.The day after Perez’s dramatic press conference, Riquelme wrote an open letter to the longstanding club president in Spanish sports daily Marca. He admitted he was interested in running for the club presidency, but called for a “longer and more open” election process.This was a nod towards how difficult it is to run in Madrid’s presidential elections, partly due to changes made to the club statutes during Perez’s time in charge. The 79-year-old was president for the first time from 2000-2006 and resumed the role in 2009.Those changes mandate that any candidate must be a Spanish citizen, have been a club member or socio for 20 years and advance a bank guarantee of 15 per cent of the club’s annual budget (the 2025-26 budget is €1.25billion — $1.5bn or £1.1bn). They are partly why Perez was re-elected unopposed in 2013, 2017, 2021 and 2025.Florentino Perez during his 2009 election campaign (Philippe Desmazes/AFP via Getty Images)Last Thursday, Madrid formally called elections under the existing rules and triggered the 10-day period during which candidates must present their bids. Riquelme quickly signalled that, although the timeframe was tight, he accepted the rules and would work on putting together a candidacy.The main sticking point to become Madrid president for many, a personal deposit of €187million, was not an issue. Sources familiar with Cox Energy’s finances — who, like all those consulted for this article, spoke on the condition of anonymity to protect relationships — told The Athletic Riquelme would have no problem raising the money required.He spoke in a 2020 interview with his company’s internal magazine about starting his business career as a teenager working in a gas station owned by his family in rural Spain.Aged 21, he moved to Central America, where he started a company that was soon providing a huge amount of sand for an expansion of the Panama Canal.In 2014, Riquelme established Cox Energy, which has solar projects in countries including Spain, Portugal, Chile, Colombia, Morocco, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In April, it bought the Mexican business of Spanish energy giant Iberdrola for $4billion.Madrid’s statutes requiring presidential candidates to have 20 years of membership would also not be an issue for Riquelme. His father — also called Enrique Riquelme — was a club director during the presidencies of Ramon Calderon and Vicente Boluda between 2006 and 2009. A post from the younger Riquelme’s Instagram account from June 2024 shows the presidential hopeful at that year’s Wembley Champions League final, which Madrid won against Borussia Dortmund.Riquelme has made regular public appearances in Spain in the weeks since Perez’s press conference.“We had a strategy for 2028, but they’ve left us very little time to organise something, which needs to be good and exciting for Real Madrid, over the next 10 or 15 or 20 years,” he said at an event organised by Spanish business newspaper Expansion this week.Riquelme first publicly considered running for the Madrid presidency in 2021, when he was just 32. Since then, he has continued to build relationships with important figures around the Bernabeu — especially former players and directors outside Perez’s orbit. It may not have been a coincidence that their former goalkeeper Iker Casillas, who joked about Perez’s press conference last week on social media, was pictured speaking with Riquelme at Wednesday’s Expansion event.