Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho has been freshly confirmed by Florentino Perez as the new coach of the club following the presidential elections in which Perez unsurprisingly held off the challenger Enrique Riquelme.
Mourinho wants to revamp the entire Real Madrid defense as his first order of business, and while Real have not brought in the man who is apparently his No .1 dream target in Inter Milan’s sweet left footed center back Alessandro Bastoni, the Italian international is on their radar.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid did sign his Nerazzurri teammate from right flank, Denzel Dumfries, as well as Ibrahima Konate at center back. And Real Madrid are very interested in left back and center back hybrids Riccardo Calafiori and Josko Gvardiol from the Premier League.
Jose Mourinho is full of surprises
According to a report from Jose Felix Diaz of Diario AS, via the Madrid Zone, even though Gvardiol has been linked more closely to Real Madrid and is widely seen as the better player with a Champions League trophy and more years of experience – plus even better international performances for Croatia – Calafiori is actually more likely to join Real Madrid this summer.
In fact, Riccardo Calafiori is reportedly considerably more likely than Josko Gvardiol to join Real Madrid. Perhaps that is because he is cheaper and easier to acquire, even though Arsenal beat Man City to the Premier League title last season, but the bigger part of the equation is that Jose Mourinho is reportedly in love with Calafiori as a player.
Surely, Mourinho rates Gvardiol, too, but he may see Calafiori as a better passer and a more technical player. Gvardiol has great technique and can even score awesome goals, plus he is more physical and faster with fewer injury risks associated.
But Calafiori has that something special about him with his quality of passing, weight of passing, and ability to elevate teams. He was one of the best players in Serie A for Bologna, willing them to a fairytale Champions League season in his breakout to stardom under Thiago Motta, which led to that big move to Arsenal.
Now, Calafiori may be ticketed for an even bigger move to Real Madrid at the behest of Mourinho, who may prefer the composure in possession and positional solidity, given Mou appears to want someone like that as his left back to shift into a back three, countering the more attacking players Real Madrid have brought in at right back.
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