Rumour Mongering: Real Madrid Target Liverpool’s Fabinho

Liverpool are looking likely to finish the season outside the top four, failing to qualify for next season’s Champions League. That could make it not just more difficult to recruit reinforcements, it could also lead to current players wanting out.

Or at least that’s the story out of Spain this week, where Fichajes claim that Liverpool’s struggles this season could lead Fabinho to seek a move to Real Madrid in the summer as Los Blancos look to overhaul the squad after their own difficult season.

Fabinho spent a year in the Madrid system on loan from Portugal’s Rio Ave shortly after he arrived in Europe. He made one appearance for the senior side before joining Monaco on loan for two years, after which the French club signed him permanently.

As the story goes, Fabinho retains fond memories of his time in the Spanish capital and is said to have spoken with Florentino Perez about a potential return to the club after Madrid beat Liverpool in the Champions League earlier this month.

It seems highly unlikely, of course, that Liverpool would be especially open to selling Fabinho this summer, and Real Madrid’s financial situation is such that it would be difficult for them to sign him given the kind of fee the Reds would demand.

Still, with Fabinho having turned 27 this season and with his contract running for two more years, in theory at least now is the time you would expect the player to either sign a new Liverpool deal or to be moved on while his value remains high.

More than anything, though, Madrid’s shaky finances—finances that see them continue to push for a Super League a week after that project appeared to end in abject failure—make it unlikely this rumour will ever amount to anything more than that.