The former president of Wolfsburg, Francisco García Sanz, has joined the Real Madrid board as one of the three new additions after the re-election of president Florentino Pérez.
Pérez was re-elected president of Madrid on Sunday for a fifth consecutive term after remaining unchallenged.
The club also announced at the end of Sunday’s board meeting the appointment of 3 new directors until 2029: García Sanz, Manuel Redondo Sierra and José Ángel Sánchez.
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García Sanz was president of Wolfsburg between 2009 and 2018 and had been part of the Bundesliga club’s board of directors since 2004.
Redondo Sierra and Ángel Sánchez, for their part, were already in Madrid as president and general director, but will now assume more daily tasks within the club. Both have been linked to the club since 2000.
Pérez president of Madrid between 2000 and 2006, before taking office in 2009.
The 77-year-old has run unopposed in the election since his return in 2013, 2017, 2021 and now 2025.
To Madrid he read: «After having been a single candidate proclaimed through this Electoral Council and in accordance with article 40, section E, point 2 of the current Social Statutes of the Club, Mr. Florentino Pérez Rodríguez is proclaimed president of Real Madrid . »
Madrid won seven La Liga and Champions League titles seven times during Perez’s presidency.
Redondo Sierra and Angel Sanchez are the two most important people at the club, second only to Perez.
His new role on the board replaces his executive position, but only increases his official responsibility, according to board sources.
For its part, Madrid also had the businessman Francisco García. According to the same sources, he enjoys a great reputation in the automotive sector, being a member of the board of directors of the Volkswagen group. But above all, he knows the world of sport, having been president of Wolfsburg from 2009 to 2018.
Despite his time at the Bundesliga club, the same resources assure that he was from Madrid.
In the last term of Perez’s presidency, from 2021 to 2025, the board had suffered the death of two members: first vice-president Fernando Fernadez-Tapias and executive Raul Ronda.
Although there is no minimum number of administrators required to create a new board, Pérez will incorporate the 3 new members who will now be the youngest male members of an aging board (Franciso García is 67 years old, Manolo Redondo is 66 years old and José Ángel He is 57 years old).
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The youngest member is the woman on the board: the State lawyer and member of the board of directors of Mapfre, Catalina Minarro, 54 years old, has been a member of the board of directors of Madrid since 2017.
In recent years there has been little change in the top structure of the club and so this change is all the more significant.
This new era is perceived as key to defining Florentino’s successor and first adjustments in the structure are expected, according to senior officials at the club.
(Dennis Agyeman/Europa Press via Getty Images)