Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Real Madrid: Florentino Perez 'holds preliminary talks' with PSG owners over shock move
Real owner Florentino Perez is believed to have met with the Qatari owners over the availability of the Swedish striker
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Your support makes all the difference.Zlatan Ibrahimovic could be on the move once again after the Paris Saint-Germain striker's name cropped up in talks between the Parisian's Qatari owners and Real Madrid president Florentino Perez, it has been reported.
Ibrahimovic remains PSG’s marquee signing since the Qatar royal family heavily invested in the Ligue 1 club in 2011 to take them to the top of French football, but the failure to progress beyond the Champions League quarter-finals is beginning to frustrate the club’s wealthy and ambitious owners.
According to Spanish newspaper Sport, Perez travelled to Doha at the weekend to discuss the non-football related matters surrounding the construction of a highway and various infrastructures in Qatar, but talks soon moved to the availability of the Swedish striker – who has just one year remaining on his current contract.
Having extended the three-year contract he signed upon his arrival in 2012 until next summer, PSG are concerned that his astronomical wages – which amount to £12m-a-year – take up nearly 20 per cent of the club’s wage budget, and the 33-year-old rejected the club’s approach to revise his contract this summer.
With that in mind, PSG could be keen to offload him a year earlier than planned and save themselves a considerable fee which could be used to strengthen in other areas, but his arrival at the Santiago Bernebeu would call into question Karim Benzema’s place in the first team.
The report adds that new manager Rafael Benitez is considering a move for another striker, with the club’s back-up options to Benzema limited to moving Ronaldo into the middle of their three-pronged attack or the fit-again Jese Rodriguez, though the Spaniard has been severely limited in his playing time due to the lengthy recovery from serious knee surgery.
Neither Ibrahimovic or Benzema will be willing to play second-fiddle at Real, and while the move for the Swede is only speculation at this point, any move from Real is likely to upset the France international.
Former Athletic Bilbao striker Fernando Llorente has also been linked with a move, with the Juventus striker currently back-up to former Real striker Alvaro Morata.
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