Florentino Pérez returns to the attack. The re-elected Real Madrid president has decided to unleash a market offensive without precedent in recent years to break the overwhelming dominance exerted by FC Barcelona over domestic competitions. With five of the six titles won by the Blaugrana in the last two seasons—including both Leagues—the white leadership has opted for the most expensive solution: spend lavishly and bring back the man who already tried it sixteen years ago with mixed results. José Mourinho is once again Florentino's bet.

The return of the 2010 coach

History repeats itself, though this time with an amplified budget. As mundodeportivo.com reveals, Portuguese José Mourinho returns to the Bernabéu, for whom Florentino has paid 15 million euros to release him from Benfica. He is the same coach to whom the president entrusted the battle against a Barcelona that then seemed unstoppable: Champions League winners in 2009, three-time League-Cup champions that same year, masters of Europe with Messi in command.

The paradox is uncomfortable: Mourinho did not win the League in his previous spell, although he did win the Copa del Rey and the Super Cup. Still, Florentino believes that this time the story will be different. And, to ensure it, he has given him a much more powerful arsenal than he had sixteen years ago.

A market even more ambitious than 2010

In the summer of 2010, Real Madrid invested approximately 60 million euros in signings for Mourinho. That landing included profiles such as Ángel Di María, Argentine winger from Benfica; Mesut Özil, German midfielder from Werder Bremen; Sami Khedira, also German from Stuttgart, and Ricardo Carvalho, Portuguese centre-back with experience at Chelsea under the same Mourinho's orders.

This 2026 season, the investment is considerably larger. Real Madrid has already closed:

• Ibrahima Konaté, 26-year-old French centre-back from Liverpool
• Bernardo Silva, 31-year-old Portuguese attacking midfielder from Manchester City
• Marc Cucurella, 28-year-old Catalan left-back, for 60 million from Chelsea
• Denzel Dumfries, 30-year-old Dutch right-back, for 20 million from Inter

But the offensive has not yet ended. Rumours point to much bigger operations: more than 100 million for Yan Diomandé, 19-year-old Ivorian winger from RB Leipzig, and a three-figure investment for Rodri Hernández, the 30-year-old Manchester City midfielder who shone at the World Cup.

Florentino's escalation: 2025 as a prelude

Last summer, with the same intention of unseating Barcelona, Real Madrid had already spent considerable sums. Then arrived Franco Mastantuono (63.2 million from River Plate), Dean Huijsen (58 million from Bournemouth), Álvaro Carreras (50 million from Benfica) and other fullbacks with potential. The effort did not yield the expected results.

Now, with Mourinho in charge and an even more ambitious roster of signings, Florentino tries to rewrite that failed script. If the operations for Diomandé and Rodri materialise, the combined spending of this summer of 2026 would far exceed any recent effort by the white club.

Will it be enough?

The question everyone is asking is whether money, however much, will achieve what it failed to in 2010. Today's Barcelona is not the one from sixteen years ago, but it remains a rival of stature. Mourinho will have to prove that his return is not just nostalgia, but a bet capable of returning hegemony to the Bernabéu. The coming months will tell.