Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has been working like a madman in recent days as his challenger Enrique Riquelme makes bold claims of signing Erling Haaland or countering his own now announced hire of Jose Mourinho with former Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund manager Jurgen Klopp.
Perez has already announced that Ibrahima Konate will be his first signing once confirmed as president, and, per Fabrizio Romano and others, he has also squared away another big defensive signing in Inter Milan right back Denzel Dumfries.
But Real Madrid are not stopping there. After links to Alessandro Bastoni and Nico Schlotterbeck, Rea Madrid and Jose Mourinho appear to be going hard after Manchester City star center back (and left back) Josko Gvardiola, an old transfer target of theirs a few years ago.
Real Madrid keep trying to poach from the Premier League
There is more, though. Another Premier League star has emerged on the Real Madrid transfer radar, as Sky Sports Germany is reporting, via the Madrid Zone, that Real have actually begun direct talks with Riccardo Calafiori in order to sign him away from the Premier League champions Arsenal.
Calafiori is an injury risk and did not play much this season, even appearing to lose his starting left back job to Piero Hincapie. But when he is healthy and at his best, Calalfiori is a major weapon with insane passing qualities and world-class defending at center back and left back.
The Italian international is a marketable player for Real Madrid, too. He is one of the few defenders in world football that has a big audience, and as an Italian player, he taps into another market for Real Madrid, who have not had many truly great Italian players in their history (Antonio Cassano, for example, clearly did not work out).
It remains to be seen how open Arsenal would be to selling Riccardo Calafiori to a direct Champions League rival, especially after they had such a great season. Calafiori is still only 24 years of age, proven in multiple leagues, and even in an off campaign still started 22 league matches with shutdown one on one defending and decent work on the ball.
Real Madrid have better options like Alessandro Bastoni and Josko Gvardiol, and some may argue Nico Schlotterbeck is the better fit due to his athleticism. But Calafiori can star as a left back or center back, just like Gvardiol, and he has a lot of untapped potential. Plus, when he was at Bologna, he was arguably the best player in all of Serie A in their fairytale season.
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