The Spanish giants are lining up moves for Zidane and Carvajal.
Real Madrid president Florentino Perez is aiming to shake things up at the Santiago Bernabeu this summer by appointing Zinedine Zidane as sports director and re-signing Bayer Leverkusen’s Daniel Carvajal.
With controversial manager Jose Mourinho departing the Spanish capital following three indifferent seasons at Madrid – the 50-year-old beat all-conquering Barcelona to the Spanish league title with a La Liga record of 100 points in 2011/12, but then lost out to the Catalans without even a whimper this season – Perez wants to change things round.
Zidane was of course one of Los Blancos’ ‘galatico’ signings in 2001, when he joined Madrid from Juventus for a then world record fee of £48m.
The Frenchman won the Spanish league title with Madrid in 2003 as well as scoring the winning goal in spectacular fashion in the Champions League final of 2002.
Since retiring from the game in 2006 Zidane has pursued several roles as an ambassador of football and charitable organisations, but now Perez wants him to once again play an important role at the Bernabeu.
“What I want is that Zidane is the leader of the new sports project,” the president told Marca.com.
The media-friendly Perez, who began his second term as Madrid president in 2009, also wants to re-sign Leverkusen defender Carvajal – a man the club let leave for Germany for £5.3m in 2012.
A successful season in the Bundesliga saw the 21-year-old nominated for the Team-of-the-Year and just 12 months after selling the right-back Perez wants him back.
“It will come, he is one of ours. It will not be long in coming.”
With the Mourinho-era over in Madrid it seems that the club are keen to progress as quickly as possible and secure some big names.
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