Another PSG player says he wants to join Real Madrid
Real Madrid is the biggest club in the world. Their three straight magical Champions League knockout wins and early LaLiga title this season have sealed the fact that this club operates on a different level. Basically every player would love to play for Real, because this is one of those few clubs where if you play for them, you know you have reached the pinnacle of football.
Kylian Mbappe is the most valuable player in the world, and he is fully expected to leave PSG for Real Madrid this summer as a free transfer after waiting down his contract just to move to the Merengues. And we know Achraf Hakimi, his current teammate at PSG, also dreams of a move back to Madrid.
Yet Mbappe and Hakimi are not the only PSG players who have made it clear they would like to play for Los Blancos one day. Their teammate and underrated midfielder Leandro Paredes can be counted as among those who aspire to be a Madridista.
He told TyC Sports, via Fabrizio Romano:
"“I’d love to play for Real Madrid one day, it’s a top club – but I respect Paris Saint-Germain and I’m more than happy here.”"
Real Madrid made a big impression on PSG’s players in the Champions League
Paredes is an important player to PSG and one of their only competent midfielders, so it is in the club’s best interests to keep him. But it is interesting for him to name-drop Real Madrid – which is surely a genuine desire – perhaps to put pressure on their management, knowing how much that club’s “leadership” despises Madrid.
Los Blancos knocked PSG out of the Champions League Round of 16 with a rapid-fire Remontada, courtesy of a Karim Benzema hat trick. That had to have made an impression on the opposition, Paredes included.
Real Madrid have interest in adding another midfielder, but Paredes does not enter the equation. He is a good player, but Los Blancos want to sign an even better and younger Ligue 1 midfielder in Aurelien Tchouameni.
This season, Paredes is completing nearly 96 percent of his passes in Ligue 1 for the Parisians and remains one of the more underrated players at his position in Europe. Maybe one day he will get his chance to join Real Madrid as a free agent or something, but that ship has probably sailed for him at the age of 27.
Next. Ranking the 5 best midfielders for Real Madrid to sign. dark
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Still, it always feels good when someone at another club – especially a club with a frosty relationship with Madrid – publicly admits that Real is the level they aspire to.