Real Madrid agree goalkeeper deal to end interest in Man Utd and Chelsea stars – report

REAL MADRID have given up their efforts to sign a new goalkeeper from either Manchester United or Chelsea and will instead land a bargain Spanish buy.
Reports in Spain claim Real have agreed to trigger the contract clause of Kepa Arrizabalaga.

And that will come as a huge relief to Manchester United and Chelsea.

Real are understood to have trailed both United’s David De Gea and Thibaut Courtois of Chelsea in recent seasons.

The Bernabeu club have chased De Gea for years and came within minutes of signing him on deadline day in 2015.




Courtois was linked in the summer and appeared open to a move, yet Real couldn’t get Chelsea to the table.

And now Spanish newspaper Marca, which has close ties to Real, claim manager Zinedine Zidane has settled on signing Athletic Bilbao goalkeeper Arrizabalaga instead.
Arrizabalaga, 23, is widely tipped to rival De Gea for Spain’s No 1 jersey in future after impressing at Bilbao.

The goalkeeper made his international debut this year and has a £17.6m (€20m) release clause.

That clause, especially when Real would likely have to fork out close to £100m for either Courtois or De Gea, means Arrizabalaga is seen as a bargain target.

Arrizabalaga’s contract runs out in the summer but Marca claim Real are willing to pay the clause in January to get him in as soon as possible.

It would also prevent another side negotiating a free transfer for the player.
Bilbao appear resigned to losing Arrizabalaga, having offered him multiple contracts since his emergence into the first team in 2015.

He will be president Florentino Perez’s first bit of business this winter and Zidane has already indicated he wants to bring in are players when the transfer window opens.

“January transfers? There definitely won’t be any outgoings,” the boss said.

“As for incomings, anything can happen so we’ll see, but we’re not talking about ins and outs right now.”

Source:www.express.co.uk