Waldemar Anton, Dortmund
Real Madrid fell out of the running in the transfer race for Borussia Dortmund's Nico Schlotterbeck after his World Cup injury with the German national team, and while Real could go back into the running for a 26 year old star Jose Mourinho had interest in already, his BVB teammate is worth taking a close look at.
Waldemar Anton, who has had some loose links to Manchester United, is one of the most underrated central defenders in European football and had an exceptional Bundesliga season in his own right. In fact, if you look past the stats and the flash, Anton is the better pure defender, and, like Aymeric Laporte, his age of 30 years will not be a disadvantage to Mourinho who wants more established veterans to fill the spine of his team.
A great one on one defender whose elite work on the ball is overshadowed by his German national teammate in the BVB backfield, Anton averaged a stellar 3.2 tackles and interceptions per game to just 0.3 dribbles completed allowed per match despite doing a lot of clean up defending for Dortmund. He even completed 90 percent of his passes and scored two goals, and he could be a bargain bin addition for Real after clearly outplaying his German teammate Rudiger last season.
Giorgio Scalvini, Atalanta
Real Madrid may be lukewarm on Alessandro Bastoni after incredibly serious allegations have been made against him, and it's the sort of thing that the club do not want to be associated with at all. So while Jose Mourinho wants him badly and Bastoni may be the team's best option on paper out of all the available center backs, Florentino Perez and the organization may have to avoid him like the plague.
Within Serie A, Giorgio Scalvini is a talented young center back whose name was closely on Royal White lips in the past before a devastating ACL tear. But the underrated Italian international has quietly come back from it and is balling out in Bergamo to such a degree that he may have had a better pure defensive season than Bastoni.
Seasoned beyond his years and superior to Dean Huijsen in his reading of the game and athleticism, Scalvini averaged 3.8 tackles and interceptions per game in the Atalanta set up, showing a robustness and fearlessness in winning the ball that Real Madrid could really use at center back as a long term Antonio Rudiger replacement and an immediate starter next to Ibrahima Konate.
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