Real Madrid among four teams still linked to Fabian Ruiz
Real Madrid could use some more midfield depth in the 2021 summer transfer window, but would Napoli’s Fabian Ruiz make sense?
For more than a year, Real Madrid have been mentioned in transfer rumors regarding Napoli center midfielder Fabian Ruiz, who was current Real loanee Dani Ceballos’ midfield teammate at Real Betis in La Liga.
Ruiz is the better of the two players, and he has shown it while at Napoli these past two seasons. He is one of the best midfielders in Serie A and is once again completing more than 90 percent of his passes in the league this season, per WhoScored.com.
According to Calciomercato.com, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, and PSG all have interest in the 24-year-old. So it appears there’s a real chance he could end up back in Spain. PSG have the greatest need for the player and the most flexibility to spend, though it will be interesting to see how a new managerial appointment in the French capital impacts their interest.
The problem for Real, Barça, and Atleti is similar, and that is the cost of signing Ruiz. Napoli’s demands were outright ridiculous last year, because they had no pressure to sell the player to Real or Barcelona, regardless of his possible wishes. In the current economic crisis, their demands are more reasonable, with Calciomercato.com reporting that they want at least 50 million euros.
But that’s still too much for Real Madrid. They could benefit from having Fabian Ruiz, but the likes of Eduardo Camavinga and Houssem Aouar in Ligue 1 would be similarly-priced and are better, younger players. Furthermore, there is no guarantee Real can sign either of those players anyway, since they have bigger priorities in the attack and might not have enough money to sign a forward and a midfielder in 2021.
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Ruiz continues to play well for Napoli and is a good player for Madridistas to monitor, but is he good enough for Los Blancos to spend 50 million euros (or more!) on? That’s the question for Real to answer, and the response could very well be a flat “no” from the La Liga giants.