Ramón Mendoza Fontela (18 April 1927 – 4 April 2001) was a Spanish lawyer and

businessman A businessperson, businessman, or businesswoman is an individual who has founded, owns, or holds shares in (including as an angel investor) a private-sector company. A businessperson undertakes activities (commercial or industrial) for the ...

who is mostly known for serving as the 13th president of Real Madrid from 24 May 1985 until 26 November 1995. He was born in

Madrid Madrid ( , ) is the capital and most populous city of Spain. The city has almost 3.4 million inhabitants and a Madrid metropolitan area, metropolitan area population of approximately 6.7 million. It is the Largest cities of the Europ ...

Kingdom of Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

President of Real Madrid

Mendoza became president of Real Madrid on 24 May 1985 when he was the only candidate at the elections for chairman of the club. He once again had no opponent in the next elections on 23 July 1988. Mendoza beat opposing candidate Alfonso Ussía by 20% of the votes (15,005 to 10,531) in January 1991 to secure his third term. He won a fourth term in 1994. In the elections which were dominated by accusations of fraud, corruption and mismanagement of the club, he nevertheless managed to beat

Florentino Pérez Florentino Pérez Rodríguez (; born 8 March 1947) is a Spanish businessman, civil engineer, former politician, and the current president of Real Madrid as well as Chairman and CEO of Grupo ACS, a civil engineering company. He was also the first ...

by 700 votes. His first years leading the club were very successful and saw the rise of the ''

La Quinta del Buitre is the moniker given by Spanish sport journalist Julio César Iglesias to the five homegrown Real Madrid players who were at the core of the team that dominated Spanish football in the 1980s. The name ("Vulture's Cohort") was derived from Emili ...

''. Real Madrid won a record 5 consecutive league titles and was considered one of the best teams in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

at the time. However, the club never managed to win the European Cup during those years, losing memorable ties to such clubs as Bayern Munich,

PSV Eindhoven Philips Sport Vereniging (; en, Philips Sports Association ), abbreviated as PSV and internationally known as PSV Eindhoven (), is a Dutch sports club from Eindhoven, Netherlands. It is best known for its professional football department, w ...

and

Arrigo Sacchi Arrigo Sacchi (born 1 April 1946) is an Italian former professional football coach. He has twice managed AC Milan (1987–1991, 1996–1997), with great success. He won the Serie A title in his 1987–88 debut season and then dominated European ...

Milan Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...

. The second half of Mendoza's presidency was marked by a slow decline in the achievements of the club, a fact that was highlighted by a very strong

Barcelona Barcelona ( , , ) is a city on the coast of northeastern Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within ci ...

team. In 1995, he was forced to give up the presidency after admitting that the club had a debt of 14 million pesetas. He was succeeded by

Lorenzo Sanz Lorenzo Sanz Mancebo (9 August 1943 – 21 March 2020) was a Spanish businessman who was the 14th President of Real Madrid and a former owner of Málaga CF. Early life He was born in August 1943 in a humble family in Madrid, being the eldest ...

, who had been vice-president during his last term. Mendoza's ten years at the helm of the club make his presidency the third longest in the history of Real Madrid after the presidencies of Santiago Bernabéu (1943–1978) and

(2009–present). Bernabéu and Pérez are also the only presidents to accumulate more trophies than Mendoza with the club. In total with Mendoza as president, Real Madrid won 6 league titles, 2 Spanish Cups, 3 Super Cups, and 1

UEFA Cup A cup is an open-top used to hold hot or cold liquids for pouring or drinking; while mainly used for drinking, it also can be used to store solids for pouring (e.g., sugar, flour, grains, salt). Cups may be made of glass, metal, china, clay ...

Death

Mendoza died at the age of 73 on 4 April 2001 while on holidays in Nassau, the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the ar ...

References

External links

Bio of Ramón Mendoza on Real Madrid Official Web Site
1927 births 2001 deaths 20th-century Spanish lawyers 20th-century Spanish businesspeople Real Madrid CF presidents {{Spain-footy-bio-stub