Real Madrid agree world-record transfer after Florentino Perez U-turn

23 Jun 2026 16:03 BST | 7 min read

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez — © IMAGO

Tom Weber | Writer

Multilingual sports writer who specialises in European football and American soccer.

Florentino Perez appears to have taken the criticism he has received over his lack of support for Real Madrid's women's team to heart, with the club now set to beat Chelsea to the signing of BK Hacken wonderkid Felicia Schroder in a potentially record-breaking deal.

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The Blancos supremo has been in the headlines a lot lately, mostly because of his re-election as president and the subsequent transfer offensive he has launched in a bid to make Real Madrid's men's team competitive again.

When Perez held his now-infamous press conference in May at which he announced an ad hoc election, two of his more questionable remarks were almost lost in the maelstrom caused by his other comments.

At one point, he dismissed an article written by a female journalist with the comment, "I don't know if she understands football at all." Later, he took a question from a female reporter because, as he explained, she was more attractive than her male counterparts.

To fans of Real Madrid's women's team, these sexist statements were entirely unsurprising. Since acquiring Club Deportivo Tacon in 2019 and rebranding it as Real Madrid Femenino the following year, Perez and company have only done the bare minimum for their women's side.

Perez U-turns on women's football

However, it now seems that the tide is turning. Real Madrid appear ready to invest - and they have to because Barcelona's unrivalled domination of Liga F is nothing short of a PR disaster for Perez.

According to reports, Real Madrid are closing in on a deal to sign BK Hacken sensation Felicia Schroder, who has been tearing it up in Sweden at just 19 years old.

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A post shared by Felicia Schröder (@feliciaschrooder)

Ben Jacobs reports that the deal is already signed, while Swedish media is not as bold: Aftonbladet reports that Real Madrid are firmly in the lead for her signature but that the transfer is not yet finalised.

Schroder has also fielded strong interest from Chelsea, but it appears that she has chosen to move to Real Madrid because of better playing time prospects.

Los Blancos are believed to have outbid the Blues, which certainly suggests that Perez is willing, however reluctantly, to make more resources available for the women's team.

The deal is expected to be formally announced in a documentary about the young forward's rise, culminating in her move to the Spanish capital. The exact fee of the deal has not yet been disclosed, but it is possible that it could be a new world record.

The current record is believed to be held by Grace Geyoro, who moved from PSG to the then-newly promoted London City Lionesses in the WSL for a rumoured fee thought to have been worth €1.65 million.

London City initially disputed that the figure they paid was a world record, but FIFA's end-of-year transfer report listed Geyoro as the most expensive deal of 2025, so the fee involved must have been the largest ever paid for a women's footballer, given that a new record was set numerous times throughout the year.

Even if Schroder's price is not quite enough to crack the record (some reports have speculated a fee worth around €1.5m), her move could be seen as a major statement of intent from Real Madrid.

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