New reports have confirmed that Real Madrid presidential candidate Enrique Riquelme looked into bringing Mikel Arteta to the club earlier this year, before the Arsenal boss extended his Gunners contract.
The Athletic report that according to sources familiar with the situation, Real Madrid presidential candidate Enrique Riquelme was interested in Mikel Arteta as a potential successor to Alvaro Arbeloa.
This backs up reports from June, in which football insider Hand of Arsenal reported something similar. But it didn’t end up mattering, as Florentino Perez won the election to continue his spell as club president.
Hand of Arsenal suggested Real Madrid’s interest could have added a complication to Arsenal attempts to tie Arteta down to a new contract, but the Gunners always felt in control of the situation and confident their manager would choose to stay.
In the end, Arteta did sign that new deal, with the club confirming it will last until June 2030.
But with Arsenal being the current Premier League champions and Champions League runners-up, it’s not hard to see why there might have been competition for that signature.
Arteta’s Arsenal have made consistent progress in the Champions League, reaching the quarter-finals in 2023/24, the semi-finals in 2024/25, and the final in 2025/26. Given Real Madrid’s love affair with the competition, he was inevitably going to start drawing their attention.
Arsenal will face Real Madrid in the Champions League in December, and Arteta’s side will hopefully give the Spanish team another taste of what they missed out on. The Gunners memorably won 5-1 on aggregate the last time the two teams met in April 2025.
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