Real Madrid News
Real Madrid going on the offensive for €150 million priority target
Jude Bellingham is a man in demand in the transfer market, with several top clubs across Europe, including Real Madrid, gunning for his signature.
The Borussia Dortmund midfield sensation has become one of the best young talents in the game over the past couple of seasons and seems primed for a big move this summer.
The likes of Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea are all in the running to sign the 19-year-old England star.
Real Madrid, for their part, have been on Bellingham’s tails for a long time now, but of late reports have suggested that they are balking at the midfielder’s €150 million price tag which could knock them out of the race.
However, according to a fresh report from Santi Aouna of Foot Mercato, Real Madrid are going on the offensive in their bid to sign Bellingham from Dortmund in the summer.
Indeed, the report states that Los Blancos’ head of recruitment, Juni Calafat, held a meeting with Bellingham’s father in a hotel in London earlier today in order to discuss the move and present the club’s project to the teenager’s entourage.
This development comes after the aforementioned outlet reported that Luka Modric’s future currently seems to be away from the Santiago Bernabeu.
With the future of Toni Kroos and Dani Ceballos also not sorted, Real Madrid will need to dive into the market for a new midfielder and Bellingham is the top target.
And they have now launched the offensive in their pursuit of the former Birmingham City starlet so that they can beat the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City in the race for the 19-year-old.
It will certainly be interesting to see whether the meeting between Calafat and the player’s father yields the desired result for the reigning champions of Spain and Europe.
In what could be a real deal breaker for Real Madrid ahead of their Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona, it has been revealed that as many as three Barça will be absent from the game while another key player remains a major doubt.
The list includes the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Andreas Christensen. The trio is certain to miss the game through respective injuries while a certain Frenkie de Jong is more or less ruled out, as per Javi Miguel.
It must be remembered that Barcelona are heading into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage. But the absence of the aforementioned players means Madrid can work on exploiting the frailties.
Despite the absence of such big names, Barcelona did pretty well against Elche in their previous outing, coming out 4-0 victorious, with the goals coming from Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
With options lacking in midfield, Xavi decided to use the likes of Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia along with Gavi in the heart of the lineup. In any way, they do have Sergio Busquets and Franck Kessie as backups if needed.
The defence, on the other hand, was perfectly guarded by Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde.
One can expect Xavi to once again interchange Araujo with Kounde on the right since the Uruguayan has been rather successful in minimizing the threat of Vinicius Jr.
As far as Madrid are concerned, they are sweating over the fitness of three key defenders, namely, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho, and Ferland Mendy. Between these three, the Frenchman is out for about a month while Rudiger and Nacho are expected to be back before the Clasico.
If there are no casualties against Real Valladolid, Madrid will have a perfect midfield and attack, with only Mariano Diaz missing.
