Italian club want Real Madrid player for free in January

There are some players at Real Madrid who have little to no chance of breaking into Carlo Ancelotti’s first-team plans in the second half of the season. One such player is Mariano Diaz, who has not made a single start for Los Blancos in this campaign and barely featured off the bench either.

Mariano is the only cover option for Karim Benzema, who is a natural forward, yet the Italian manager has preferred to use Rodrygo in a false nine role when the Frenchman has been out injured.

That should tell one about the position of Mariano in this squad at the moment and with his contract running out at the end of the ongoing campaign, he looks certain to depart Santiago Bernabeu.

He might be offered a route out of the Spanish capital even before that though, but only if Real Madrid let him leave for nothing in January itself.

Italian club want Real Madrid player for free in January

As reported by Mundo Deportivo, the Italian media say that Lazio want to sign Mariano in January but they do not want to pay a transfer fee for a player whose contract ends in June.

Real Madrid are believed to be open to letting Mariano leave in January but hope to get something out of his departure rather than see him leave on a free transfer.

Thus, it will be very interesting to see how things turn surrounding the entire transfer saga involving Mariano, Lazio and Real Madrid.

Of course, Lazio could sign him on a pre-contract agreement, but then he would only be able to move on in the summer and not in January.

While Mariano is not expected to play much football till the end of the campaign, it would not make a ton of sense for Real Madrid to let him leave for nothing in January though, and instead they should keep him as an emergency option, especially considering the injury issues that the club have had to deal with.