According to the Guardian, European giants Real Madrid are interested in signing Manchester United forward Marcus Rashford. The report suggests that the European champions are ready to table a bid of around £5omillion for the England international.
Highly rated youngster
Marcus Rashford is one of the most highly-rated in the European game. Rashford burst onto the football scene as an 18-year-old for United. Since then his reputation as a fine young prospect has only grown bigger by the season.
At 21 years of age, the forward has already made 31 international appearances for the Three Lions, scoring six goals in the process.
Despite a growing reputation, Rashford has been in and out of the Red Devils starting line-up over the past few seasons. The youngster has started just five of United’s 12 league games this season. However, four of those starts have been in the last five top-flight matches. He is in the team now, but United boss Jose Mourinho seems to like to use Rashford sparingly.
Real Madrid looking attacking reinforcements
According to the Guardian report, Real Madrid considers Rashford to be a potential replacement for Cristiano Ronaldo. That would be a massive ask of the youngster, who is not yet the finished article, never mind in the same league as the former Los Blancos star.
However, with Ronaldo now plying his trade at Juventus it is understandable that the club from the Spanish capital are looking for attacking reinforcements. Real Madrid are one of the biggest clubs in the world and have made a poor start to their campaign. Their poor start has the European champions as major outsiders to win the Spanish league title this season.
The appointment of Santiago Solari as the team’s new coach has helped improve their fortunes, as Los Blancos have won their last four games in all competitions. Despite the improvement in results, the Spanish giants will no doubt still be looking at bringing in fresh faces in the near future.
Apparently, Rashford has caught the eye of scouts sent by Real Madrid, as the Spanish club were reportedly initially looking at United midfielder Paul Pogba. It seems the target may have changed.
Would be a massive transfer
There are no signs that Manchester United are willing to sell their highly-rated young forward anytime soon. If United were prepared to sell Rashford then it would be a massive transfer for everybody involved.
It would be a big move for Rashford, himself. The youngster is accustomed to playing for Manchester United, but at Real Madrid, there is even more pressure to succeed and expectation. Whether he could handle that sort of atmosphere at such a young age is unclear.
If United sold Rashford to Real Madrid, then it would send out a signal that the Red Devils are prepared to sell their best young players. For Real Madrid, it would be signing a player with big talent and potential, but no guarantee he would be successful.
It would be intriguing to see whether Rashford would be successful in a new country, league and culture. Some English youngsters have thrived in European leagues this season.
However, only time will tell if this story has any truth to it or whether it is just the media making up a story because it is a slow news day. We will see.
Is Marcus Rashford a realistic transfer target for Real Madrid?
