Madrid, Aug 21 (DPA) Real Madrid are close to selling Royston Drenthe to Portuguese champions Benfica, according to media reports Saturday.
Drenthe, 22, is one of the players that Real is trying to offload, after spending 80 million euros ($101.9 million) on six new players, by far the highest amount in Spain this summer.
Real paid 13 million euros to Feyenoord for Drenthe in 2007, but the Dutch left-back has failed to convince at the Estadio Bernabeu and has hardly played.
According to the Portuguese media, Benfica are only prepared to pay around four million euros for him.
On Thursday Benfica took Argentine winger Eduardo Salvio on loan from Atletico Madrid.
The other players that Real are trying to offload are Rafael Van der Vaart, Mahamadou Diarra and Fernando Gago.
Sports daily Marca claimed on Saturday that Real coach Jose Mourinho is interested in Wolfsburg striker Edin Dzeko, and that Van der Vaart might be brought into the deal.
The Dutch international on Saturday however dismissed the report, saying that he was not interested in joining Wolfsburg. ‘I have the intention of staying with Rel Madrid. If that is not possible, a move to Wolfsburg would not be an option at this stage,’ he is quoted in Saturday’s edition of Marca.
He added that if he was to move he would only be interested in signing for a club like Manchester United or Bayern Munich.
Marca also claimed that Mourinho is insisting on Real signing another left-back, and mentions Michel Bastos of Lyon and Gael Clichy of Arsenal.
Real’s general director Jorge Valdano said Wednesday, when presenting Mesut Oezil as a new signing, that Real would not buy more players this summer, but Mourinho seems to have other ideas.
