Real Madrid News
Real Madrid mulling over a new contract offer for 24-year-old star amid Premier League, La Liga interest
The recent injury of Kepa Arrizabalaga has opened up a fresh opportunity for Andriy Lunin, who has started the last couple of matches for Real Madrid.
The Ukrainian has not disappointed either, producing good performances against Valencia and SC Braga.
Change of outlook from Real Madrid
In light of his recent performances, journalist Tomas Gonzalez-Martin has offered a key update on the goalkeeper’s future.
As per Martin, Lunin’s improvement in performances has forced Real Madrid to change their outlook towards the goalkeeper.
They have essentially opened discussions within the Real Madrid management as to whether or not the club should hand the Ukrainian a new contract.
Lunin’s current deal at the Santiago Bernabeu expires at the end of the season and there have been no indications of the goalkeeper staying beyond, as things stand.
New contract must include guarantees
Should Real Madrid go through with the plan to hand Andriy Lunin a renewal offer, it must come with several guarantees.
One would imagine the key clause will be regular game-time. Lunin, after all, has been extremely unfortunate with game-time during his time at Real Madrid so far and he would want to nail down regular minutes.
The 24-year-old’s partner had recently hinted that they would look to move to a club where he could be getting minutes if such an opportunity presented itself.
Not to mention, the Ukrainian international has been courted by several clubs across Europe, including Real Betis. Even Premier League clubs are keeping a close eye on the goalkeeper.
With that in mind, it will be interesting to see how Lunin’s future unfolds in the coming months.
Real Madrid’s main goal heading into the summer transfer window was to wrap up the signing of Jude Bellingham amid massive interest from Premier League giants such as Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola’s City, especially, were ready to match and increase any salary Madrid offered, and were going strongly into the bidding war.
Eventually, Bellingham decided to join Madrid after they reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for €3 million.
However, following this, los blancos had to improvise a fair bit as Karim Benzema decided to leave the club to join Al-Ittihad on a free transfer. They were expecting him to continue for another season, at least, and it stumped their plans in the market.
In the next few weeks, Madrid chased forwards, and ended up signing Joselu, Brahim Diaz, and a certain Arda Guler, who was close to Barcelona before eventually ending up at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Unfortunately for Madrid, he is yet to play a single minute for the club after picking up a serious injury in pre-season. Despite being on the bench for a couple of games, Guler suffered a relapse in training, and was sidelined again.
Now, reports from Yagiz Sabuncuoglu say that the Turkish international is close to returning to team training.
Guler has slowly, but surely, been recovering from his injury, and could take to the pitch for his first minutes with the club in the next few weeks as Madrid look for solutions after a month full of injuries.
With Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eder Militao, and Thibaut Courtois all out until early 2024, Madrid have relied on Castilla for reinforcements, but could do with Guler’s services in their forward line.
That said, Carlo Ancelotti and co. are expected to be extremely cautious when it comes to the Turkish international. The slightest spell of poor man-management here could make or break the youngster’s career.
