"Mauro Icardi will be at Real Madrid next year" - Massaro
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The drought being endured by Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, and Los Blancos' lack of goals in general, have seen a host of potential attacking signings linked with the LaLiga giants: Alexis Sánchez, Harry Kane, Mohamed Salah...
Massaro: Icardi will be at Real Madrid in 2018/19
Now Daniele Massaro, the former AC Milan and Italy forward turned TV pundit, has added another name to the list: Inter Milan captain Mauro Icardi.
"I can tell you today that Icardi will be at Real Madrid next year in place of Benzema," Massaro, 56, told the Italian channel Premium Sport on Monday.
Icardi, who has scored 13 goals in 13 Inter games this season, is under contract at the Serie A club until 2021, and, according to the CIES Football Observatory, would be expected to cost around 100 million euros.
Icardi had spell in Barcelona's youth academy
Born in Rosario, Argentina, Icardi and his family moved to Spain's Canary Islands when he was nine, leading him to begin his youth career at Tercera División outfit UD Vecindario, before in 2008 joining the academy at Barcelona, where he continued to show his goalscoring potential.
In 2011, Barça loaned Icardi to Sampdoria, with his performances at the Stadio Luigi Ferraris seeing the Italians take up a purchase option on the 24-year-old, who then went on to earn a 13-million-euro switch to Inter.
In his four years at the Nerazzurri, the Argentina international has grown into a San Siro idol, scoring 91 times and supplying 23 assists in his 159 appearances so far.
