Raul Albiol heads to Real, Benzema stays at Lyon

Real Madrid continue to spend money on new signings but even though the latest transfer is not a high profile one, like those of Kaka and Ronaldo, it could prove to be a real bargain. Los Merengues agreed to pay Valencia €15 million for talented centre-back Raul Albiol, who will sign a five-year contract after returning from the Confederations Cup. However, club’s other target, Karim Benzema is set to stay at Lyon, thus Real are still looking for another striker.

Raul Albiol is the product of Valencia youth academy and he has played more than 100 games for Los Che. He has already amassed 15 appearances for the national team after making a debut in 2007 and the 23-year-old centre-back is seen as the perfect replacement for Fabio Cannavaro, who returned to Juventus. The deal is thought to be worth around €15 million and together with Pepe, Albiol should form a centre-back pairing for years to come.

In the meantime, Lyon rejected the offer from Real for Karim Benzema and considering that the player himself has stated that he did not want to leave, Los Merengues will have to turn their attention elsewhere.

The deal to take David Villa to Madrid has hit snag and maybe Florentino Perez will again turn his attention to Zlatan Ibrahimovic.

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