Real Madrid Transfers: 5 attacking players to monitor in 2021

Erling Haaland (Photo by Max Maiwald/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
Erling Haaland (Photo by Max Maiwald/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)
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Jadon Sancho
Jadon Sancho (Photo by Alex Gottschalk/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

Dortmund FW Jadon Sancho

The final player to consider is Jadon Sancho, who has started the 2020-2021 Bundesliga season slowly but should still be regarded as one of the premier talents in European football.

Sancho is capable of playing on either the left or right-hand side, but he seems to be more comfortable on the right where he can get the ball into the box for his teammates or pull the ball across goal himself as his favored finish.

A goal-scoring wide forward is Real’s priority, yes, and that’s a big reason why the left-footed Mohamed Salah is the better fit. But Sancho can create goals in so many ways. For Real Madrid, it shouldn’t necessarily matter how those goals come to be, just that someone is out there producing the quality that leads to them.

Sancho has bags of quality. You won’t find many more skilled players in the world than him, and he is both exciting and effective. His decision-making keeps getting better and better, and Dortmund have done a great job of showing trust in him. Sancho’s has to deal with some ups and downs, but he is a special player.

There are two things that concern me about Sancho as a target for Real Madrid. He scored 17 goals in 2019-2020, but I’m still not sold on his finishing. But the bigger issue is the price tag. Dortmund will want more than 100 million euros for Sancho, but, in this economy, I’m not sure I would pay 100 million euros if I were Real Madrid.

Logistically, anything above 50 million euros will be hard for Real to pull off, so if they can even afford a major signing in 2021, they could only afford one. It would then impact their possible signings in 2022, and the likes of Haaland and Mbappe are more important to Los Merengues than Sancho.