A key lawyer in Luis Figo's move to Los Blancos speaks to MARCA.
Florentino Perez and Real Madrid's story started back in 2000, when he won the presidency thanks to the signing of Luis Figo from Barcelona.
To pry the Portuguese winger away from their arch-rivals, a ground-breaking civil contract was drawn up between Florentino, who was a presidential candidate at the time, and Figo himself, which included a penalty fee of 30 million euros.
That was the figure that the future president publicly promised to pay if he did not manage to sign the Barcelona star, who for his part would have to pay it if he backed out and ended up staying at the Camp Nou
Why did Florentino dare to do this? He did it because the huge compensation fee agreed in the deal basically forced Figo to move to the club.
Vicente Montes, a lawyer who is an international expert in sports law, was involved in this process and has spoken to MARCA about the current situations regarding Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
Montes has experience working with Florentino Perez, and he believes that the Real Madrid chief has already agreed to sign both Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland.
"I'd bet everything that he has got Mbappe signed already," Montes said.
"Haaland looks like he'd be better in two seasons, or so the rumour has it, but yes [I think he'll sign him]."
"I know [Manchester] City want a No.9 after the fiasco with [Harry] Kane in 2021, and they look very strong financially to beat Real Madrid in this race."
Montes explained how that ground-breaking contract between Real Madrid and Figo was initially drawn up.
"The process was set in motion about three months before the elections," said Montes.
"Paulo Futre and Jose Veiga, Figo's agent, called me. Paulo had already asked me before, without telling me about the club or the player, to study whether a player could be signed in a specific way."
"I only found out that it was about Real Madrid and Figo in the hours before the meeting."