Arsenal defender Gabriel Magalhães would be a possible candidate to replace David Alaba at Bayern Munich, should the defender end up leaving.
That’s according to Hamburger Morgenpost, who cover the player’s situation at Bayern and name potential replacements for him.
To explain, Alaba is out of contract at Bayern next summer and is yet to sign a new deal with the German champions.
That means he can negotiate a free transfer with clubs around Europe come January, should he wish, something Bayern obviously aren’t happy about.
Indeed, this week has seen various coverage on the situation in Germany, with SportBILD claiming that the likes of Manchester City, who are known admirers of the defender, should show solidarity with Bayern and not move for him on a free.
Anyway, should he go Bayern will need a replacement and MOPO have looked at five players who could fill the role.
They explain that he needs to be ‘younger than Alaba’ as well as left-footed, given Hansi Flick likes to play with one right-footed defender and one left-footed and already has two players who are the former.
The first name the newspaper come up with is Inter Milan’s Andrea Bastoni, followed by Borussia Dortmund’s Dan-Axel Zagadou. If they want a player with a German passport, then Jordan Torunarigha from Hertha Berlin should be a candidate.
Other ‘exciting names on the market’ would be Pau Torres from Villarreal and Gabriel from Arsenal, with both of them expected to cost ‘around €30m’.
Now, to be clear, this is not MOPO definitively saying Bayern are interested or anything of the sort. Instead, they are simply stating Gabriel could be an option for them.
If that proves to be the case, Arsenal will likely put up a big fight for the defender, who has proven a massive hit since his arrival in the summer.
They’d undoubtedly demand more than €30m for him, particularly given they paid Lille £23m, which may put Bayern off in the first place.
