Real Madrid President says Ceuta visit not related to ‘recent news’

Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez visited Ceuta city hall on Friday to offer the club’s solidarity with the Spanish enclave, telling officials the trip had been arranged over several weeks rather than prompted by recent developments. Pérez attended the event alongside José Martínez Pirri, the club’s honorary president who is a native of Ceuta, and they were received by Regional President Juan Jesús Vivas. The visit followed visible gestures of support from Real Madrid players earlier in the week. Ahead of a La Liga match with Elche on Tuesday, several teammates wore shirts bearing the phrase 'We are all mackerels' — a reference to a nickname for people from Ceuta — while Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior and Ibrahima Konaté rolled up their shirts to obscure that message. The club told Reuters it respected players’ freedom of expression and noted a tifo in support of Ceuta had been displayed during their Champions League match with Inter Milan a week earlier. Pérez said at the city hall that the visit was intended to convey support and affection to Ceutans and to stress that the meeting had been organized with local authorities well before the recent incidents. He expressed the club’s wish that normality return to the territory as soon as possible. The gestures come against the backdrop of a large irregular migration event in July, when more than 70,000 people crossed into Ceuta from Morocco, causing disruption in the territory. Real Madrid’s actions form part of broader displays of solidarity across Spain in response to that mass crossing.