Los Blancos are interested in Laporte.
Athletic Bilbao defender Aymeric Laporte has attracted the interest of Manchester United in recent times, but now Real Madrid have also joined the race to sign the youngster, reports CaughtOffside.
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Bilbao do not want to sell the 20-year-old and club president Josu Urrutia has said that any party who want to sign Laporte will have to pay his €42m (£31.4m) release clause.
However, Madrid do have a bargaining chip as Athletic club are interesting in signing out of favour midfielder Asier Illarramendi – who has struggled for game time at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu since joining from Real Sociedad in 2013.
Therefore Illarramendi could possibly be used in any deal to try and bring Laporte to the capital, which would see the Red Devils missing out on one of the brightest young talents in European football.
Despite his young age the centre-back has already played 84 appearances for the Basque side and it’s thought he will soon be the established first choice at the back for France as well.
His likely central defensive partner in that event would probably be Raphael Varane and with Pepe approaching the latter stages of his career Los Blancos would like to field Laporte and Varane at the back.
The Red Devils are also keen on the Frenchman as they continue to find adequate replacements for Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic.
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