Florentino Pérez visits Ceuta after Real Madrid shirt row

According to Infobae, Florentino Pérez went to Ceuta this Friday, 18 September 2026, alongside Emilio Butragueño, the club's director of institutional relations, and José Martínez "Pirri", honorary president and a Ceuta native, where he met the head of the city's government, Juan Jesús Vivas of the PP. The trip lands right in the middle of a controversy that Al Jazeera traced back to the Real Madrid-Elche fixture at the Martínez Valero stadium (reported on 16 September): LaLiga had players wear a white shirt reading "Todos somos caballas" and "Nuestra Ciudad, nuestra patria" in solidarity with Ceuta after a large arrival of migrants from Morocco.

Al Jazeera and the Spanish edition of Sports Illustrated both report the moment that set things off: Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Jr and Ibrahima Konaté pulled the shirt on in the tunnel but rolled it up over their chests to hide the message, then took it off entirely before the pre-match handshake. Sports Illustrated adds Mbappé's own explanation, in which he said he had nothing against the people of Ceuta and backed them "al 100%", but wanted to keep in mind everyone who is suffering, framing his gesture as a message of peace.

The reaction, the outlets note, spilled into politics. Infobae and RTVE (the latter picked up via Google Trends) report that Youth and Childhood minister Sira Rego said she was "profundamente agradecida" to Mbappé, reading his move as solidarity with migrants who have died or are in difficulty. Worth flagging: how that statement should be understood is itself disputed, with parts of the Spanish press giving it a very different, more critical reading, so its exact tenor is best checked against the primary source. Infobae also mentions the Peña Madridista de Ceuta, said to count more than 100 members, which protested against the three players' gesture.

Why is this trending in Spain today? Because Pérez himself addressed it. Defensa Central quotes him insisting the Ceuta event had been "preparando desde hace semanas y no por ninguna noticia reciente", stressing it was not an improvised response to the row, and adding that he hoped Ceuta would "recuperar la normalidad lo antes posible" while sending his affection to its residents. Infobae adds a detail that puts the visit in a wider sequence: before Pérez, RFEF president Rafael Louzán and national coach Luis de la Fuente had already made their own trips to the enclave earlier in September.

Sources : Al Jazeera, Sports Illustrated, Infobae, Defensa Central, RTVE, Google Trends.