![\"Four](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/madrid-cb-spot-1753282608-173008.png\" "\\"Four")
<\/p>\nWilliam Saliba on radar\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a9TM\/IMAGO\n <\/p>\n
Real Madrid<\/a>\u00a0have invested heavily to improve their defensive ranks this summer but another centre-back might still be required. The Spanish giants\u2019 defensive deficiencies were badly exposed last season with their squad unbalanced and they\u2019ve addressed that with three new arrivals. Madrid have added two new full-backs in Trent Alexander-Arnold<\/a>\u00a0and \u00c1lvaro Carreras<\/a>, with Los Blancos also winning the race for coveted centre-back Dean Huijsen<\/a>. The Spanish international is widely regarded as one of the best centre-back talents in the world but Madrid could still re-enter the market to complement Huijsen\u2019s arrival.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Xabi Alonso<\/a>\u00a0deployed his preferred 3-5-2 formation during the Club World Cup and his tactical approach requires more depth at centre-back, and Madrid lack that. While the LaLiga<\/a>\u00a0club currently have five senior centre-backs on their books, there\u2019s legitimate doubts over several players. David Alaba<\/a>\u00a0and \u00c9der Milit\u00e3o<\/a>\u00a0have been plagued by injuries with both playing just 31 games over the last two seasons and there\u2019s question marks over whether Ra\u00fal Asencio<\/a>\u00a0is of the required quality – the Spanish international also faces serious off-field allegations. Therefore, we\u2019ve analysed four potential centre-back targets with speculation suggesting Madrid will target one more arrival this summer.<\/p>\n \nFour Real Madrid centre-back targets<\/p>\n William Saliba<\/a>\u00a0is viewed as Madrid\u2019s dream centre-back target but it will be near impossible to extract him from Arsenal<\/a>\u00a0this summer. The French international has stated his desire to remain in North London next season but there\u2019s been no agreement over a contract extension with his current deal expiring in 2027. Moreover, Spanish outlet Marca have reported that Saliba is \u2018ready to make a financial effort in order to join Madrid\u2019. Despite the speculation, the 24-year-old is expected to remain at Arsenal this summer and it would require an astronomical sale for Mikel Arteta\u2019s men to sell. Madrid are more likely to hope Saliba runs his contract down into the last twelve months before making their move.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n There\u2019s been lingering reports that Madrid will move for Ibrahima Konat\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0this summer. The 26-year-old\u2019s contract at Anfield expires next summer and Liverpool<\/a>\u00a0face a serious dilemma over whether to cash in. There\u2019s been talks over a new contract but there\u2019s been no breakthrough and Anfield chiefs risk losing him on a free – which they will be keen to avoid after Alexander-Arnold. The French international is one of the best centre-backs in the Premier League and his current valuation on Transfermarkt is \u20ac60m. But Liverpool would struggle to recoup such a fee for Konate and Madrid would be unwilling to offer such an amount with speculation they\u2019d be happy to offer around \u20ac30m.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Madrid have been strongly linked with a move for Piero Hincapi\u00e9<\/a>\u00a0this summer but Transfermarkt understands that reports of a \u20ac60m release clause aren’t accurate. Moreover, Erik ten Hag has stated that Bayer Leverkusen<\/a>\u00a0are determined not to lose any more influential players this summer after the departures of Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong. Hincapie is highly-rated by Leverkusen and he\u2019s already amassed over 150 top five league games at just 23 years old after moving to the Bundesliga in 2021 from CA Talleres for just \u20ac6.35m. The Ecuador international is left-footed and one issue over his potential signing is that his preferred role would be the same as Huijsen in the left centre-back role.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ant\u00f3nio Silva<\/a>\u00a0represents a more affordable option than the aforementioned options and it was reported earlier this summer that Benfica<\/a>\u00a0would accept an offer of around \u20ac35m. Madrid historically have a good relationship with the Portuguese club, although that was strained slightly by complications over the Carreras deal. The 21-year-old has experienced some troubling moments over the last year but he remains an immense prospect with 17 Portugal caps to his name already. Silva would be an affordable option with massive potential and he\u2019s one to keep an eye on, especially if top targets are unattainable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Saliba on radar\u00a0 \u00a9TM\/IMAGO Real Madrid\u00a0have invested heavily to improve their defensive ranks this summer but another…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":33965,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[28239,28236,1215,28232,28240,28237,28241,22266,16952,1711,28235,1084,28242,4898,28233,403,99,28238,28231,28234],"class_list":["post-33964","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-alvaro-carreras","tag-antonio-silva","tag-arsenal-fc","tag-bayer-04-leverkusen","tag-david-alaba","tag-dean-huijsen","tag-eder-militao","tag-ibrahima-konate","tag-laliga","tag-liverpool-fc","tag-piero-hincapie","tag-premier-league","tag-raul-asencio","tag-real-madrid","tag-sl-benfica","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-trent-alexander-arnold","tag-uefa-champions-league","tag-william-saliba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33964","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33964"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33964\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33965"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33964"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33964"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33964"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/madrid-cb-targets-1753282639-173009.png\")
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