Barcelona’s transfer objectives may take a huge hit if they end up losing on a prime target to arch rivals Real Madrid, who may go all-in for him.
Real Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane is possibly bracing for the departure of France international Raphael Varane. The central defender is unsure about whether his future lies in Spain or elsewhere and seeks to have a new challenge. Hence, the Merengues are turning to a Barcelona target in their hopes of signing a replacement.
As per Fox Sports, Zinedine Zidane wants Matthijs de Ligt at Real Madrid at any cost and has told Florentino Perez that the Dutchman is a player of a generation’s time and seeing him at the Camp Nou could come at double the cost because Barcelona are the Whites’ rival for every trophy that they play for.
Matthijs de Ligt has heavy interest from the Blaugrana as well as Liverpool, whereas Real Madrid have also been monitoring his progress since the last few months. Amid interest from some of Europe’s biggest clubs, Ajax Amsterdam have valued the centre back in the range of 70 and 80 million euros.
Real Madrid have already signed Eder Militao from Porto, but Zidane does not think that the Br azilian is good enough to replace Raphael Varane. However, it seems like the defending European champions may need to look at other options as Matthijs de Ligt personally prefers moving to Catalonia.
Meanwhile, the Spanish champions are looking to sell Samuel Umtiti in order to accommodate Matthijs de Ligt in their roster. That being said, Barcelona have already raided Ajax Amsterdam once by signing Frenkie de Jong from them and getting Matthijs de Ligt this summer would be an equally grand statement from them.