Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti would have Tottenham’s Richarlison on his list of targets to replace Karim Benzema if he leaves this summer.
That’s according to journalist Ramon Alvarez de Mon, who says Tottenham’s Brazilian would be among the players Ancelotti would recommend to Madrid as a replacement for the Frenchman.
Benzema is currently believed to be toying with the idea of leaving Real Madrid this summer after receiving a huge offer to move to Saudi Arabia on a two-year contract.
This has caused panic at the Santiago Bernabeu, where they had not anticipated that Benzema would be leaving this summer and had instead only planned to sign a new centre-forward in 2024 or beyond.
A departure from the club a year earlier than that would leave them in a difficult situation as they would need to replace him but don’t want to spend huge amounts to do so on a player who they will want to replace with either Erling Haaland or Kylian Mbappe in the next few years.
That would mean signing a stand in for the interim, a player who could do a job for one or two years before the Spanish giants move definitively to sign one of the aforementioned superstars.
That itself would be a difficult task but Alvarez de Mon says Ancelotti already has players in mind, and one of them is Tottenham’s Richarlison, who he worked alongside at Everton.
“Ancelotti’s preferences in case Benzema leaves, well, I’m told they are Richarlison and Harry Kane. This is information, not my opinion, at least as far as Richarlison is concerned,” he told his YouTube channel.
“In the case of Richarlison, one of the advantages he sees is that he is 26 years old and is a player he knows well because he was with him at Everton, where he performed quite well.
“He averaged I think 12-13 goals in the Premier League in the seasons he was at Everton. Not all of them were with Ancelotti on the bench logically and he is a player that he knows well, and I imagine he knows what he can give and therefore he feels comfortable.
“Another of the advantages that Ancelotti would see when it comes to being an option that the club could consider is that the price of Richarlison would be €40-45m, no more.
“This season he has been a regular substitute at Tottenham and is a player who would have a lower market value if he were to leave.
“We must remember that he was the starting striker for Brazil in the last World Cup but thisseason he has done has been very poor in terms of numbers. One goal in the Premier League and two goals in the Champions League. Extremely low figures.
“I think that would complicate his candidacy when it comes to deciding which striker Madrid will sign. I think it would complicate it a lot, but he is a player that Ancelotti likes a lot and if the club asks Ancelotti, it will surely find this name.”
