Benfica confirmed on Thursday that Real Madrid will be forced to pay a €15 million (US$17.4m) release clause to prise José Mourinho away from Lisbon, but only if Florentino Pérez secures re-election as the Spanish club’s president this weekend. In a regulatory filing to Portugal’s Comissão do Mercado de Valores Mobiliários (CMVM), the publicly traded club stated that Pérez had expressed his “firm intention” to appoint the coach should he defeat challenger Enrique Riquelme in the 7 June ballot.

The statement codifies a choreography that had been playing out in public for days. Pérez’s campaign released a video in which Mourinho, currently in charge at Benfica, accepted the offer to return to the Bernabéu – a club he led from 2010 to 2013, winning a Liga title, a Copa del Rey and a Spanish Super Cup. That footage piled pressure on Benfica to clarify the coach’s contractual situation, and the CMVM communiqué was the result. Viewed from Lisbon, the filing is both mundane – a requirement for companies listed on the Portuguese stock exchange – and revealing: it strips the speculation of its transfer-window froth and replaces it with hard financial fact.

The fee has been the subject of intense debate. Earlier Madrid-based reports had suggested the clause could be triggered for as little as €3 million, but Thursday’s confirmation settles the matter at €15 million. In an era when top-tier player transfers routinely exceed €100 million, the sum is relatively modest, but it remains one of the highest known release clauses for a manager. Financial analysts in New York note that the clause, while significant, is unlikely to deter Pérez, for whom Mourinho is a talismanic figure capable of mobilising the club’s often fractious membership.

The move would reunite Mourinho with the side he left in 2013 after a rancorous final season. His departure was widely seen as the end of an era, yet the Portuguese has since won trophies with Chelsea, Manchester United and Roma before taking the Benfica job. A return, thirteen years on, would be framed by the upcoming 2026 World Cup and the expected retooling of Real Madrid’s ageing squad. Whether Mourinho still possesses the alchemy to compete with the club’s urban rivals, now coached by a new generation of managers, remains an open question.

If Pérez loses on Sunday, these plans evaporate. But should he prevail, the payment will be processed and Mourinho’s arrival will dominate the summer narrative, signalling a pivot back to the hard-edged pragmatism that defined his first tenure. For now, the football world watches a presidential election that has acquired an unusually direct sporting consequence.