Real Madrid want Pogba rather than Lewandowski
Real Madrid not so keen on Lewandowski
Little by little Florentino Pérez, Real Madrid president, is going off the idea of signing Lewandowski. There are just too many issues. He’d need to get rid of Benzema, and enter into a fight with Bayern to bring the striker. And make another mess of the squad’s salary structure: the Polish player wants 20 million euros a season.
Lewandowski wants nearly as much as Cristiano
That’s only half a million less a year than Cristiano Ronaldois on, who it has just been revealed is the highest paid sportsman on the planet (77 million euros a year, adding up salary and sponsorship). That’s more than Messi (71), Lebron (67), Federer (59), Djokovic (48) or Phil Mickelson (46).
If not Lewandowski, Pogba
Now the main target is Pogba. Last summer, this writer ended up having a conversation with Mino Raiola. the player’s eccentric agent. And he was rather revealing about his poor relationship with Florentino. We’ll ignore the less than pleasant terms he used to refer to the “president-sporting director” of Madrid. He was less than happy, to say the least. Florentino had refused to sign his player, who was crazy about a move to Madrid, when the agent had already reached an agreement with José Ángel Sánchez, Real Madrid’s general manager.
Rumours from the Bernabéu
What happened next didn’t help the situation either. And it ended up reaching Juve too (the footballing world is far smaller than might be thought). Rumours from the Bernabéu suggested that Pogba wasn’t entirely stable mentally; that he was too unruly to be at Real Madrid. Nothing could be further from the truth: the lad (he’s 23), lived with his mum until recently. First in Manchester, then Turin. His extravagant haircuts deceive. He’s no Balotelli.
Zidane effect
The arrival of Zinedine Zidane in the dugout at Madrid, and his European triumph, have changed the situation entirely. He wants Pogba, and it looks like he’s convinced Florentino. It’s going to be the acid test for the French coach. Because Florentino is going to have make a huge (financial) effort to bring the player in, and he’s not seen at Madrid as the same type of ‘shirt-seller’, such as Bale, Cristiano and James, that Florentino likes so much.
Space in the Real Madrid side for Pogba
Zidane knows how to make space for him in the team, too. He could bench Casemiro and try a Modric-Kroos-Pogba triple pivot. Or wait for time to move the pieces. In the small footballing world the rumours are afoot, and getting stronger all the time, that Guardiola’s City would rather like Kroos to come and join them…