Leaked audio shows Real Madrid president insulting club legends

MADRID -- Leaked audio recordings of a conversation held in 2006 have embarrassed Real Madrid president Florentino Perez after it was revealed he called club legends Raul Gonzalez and Iker Casillas "frauds."

In the conversation, which was published by the 'El Confidencial' online newspaper, Perez said that Casillas, who made 725 appearances for the club between 1999 and 2015 was "one of the great frauds and the second is Raul."

Raul scored 323 goals in 741 games for Real Madrid, but that doesn't spare him the criticism of the club president.

"Raul is a bad person; he thinks Real Madrid is his and he uses what there is at the club for his own benefit... As he's finished (as a player), he says 'before I am finished, I'm going to finish with Madrid'. He's very negative and he's destroying Madrid and the morale of the players, so people say 'It's Madrid that's bad, not Raul."

Perez's attack on Casillas was just as strong. "We've already seen better goalkeepers than Casillas, poor man, he's really not very bright. He's a man without...Well, he's really stupid... He's like a lapdog, a dummy, childish."

"He's not a goalkeeper for Real Madrid and he never has been," he commented.

Although the audio clips are 15-year old, they are hugely embarrassing for Perez given that Raul is currently the coach of Real Madrid's B-team (Real Madrid Castilla) and was among the favorites to replace Zinedine Zidane at the end of last season. Meanwhile, Casillas works for the club's Foundation, after returning in December 2020 just over five years after his move to Porto.