Transfer news: £135 million superstar willing to take pay cut to join Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester United to pull off stunning swap deal and more, 1 April 2019

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified May 03, 2019 05:46 GMT

Lionel Messi will likely have a sensational strike partner from next season onwards

Manchester United want Toni Kroos+Gareth Bale in exchange for Paul Pogba

According to a report in The Guardian, Zinedine Zidane's latest comments have intensified the speculation over Paul Pogba's future at Manchester United. As per the report, Manchester United want Toni Kroos and Gareth Bale in exchange in any deal involving Paul Pogba.

Asked about Pogba's recent comments about Real Madrid, Zizou said,

“He has always said that, after Manchester, Madrid has always interested him,”

“So when his experience at Manchester ends, why not come here to Madrid?”

Meanwhile, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer quashed any notion that Pogba will not be a Real Madrid player beyond the summer. He said,

“Players are available all the time as well and it’s a different environment, a general talk.

“Paul is a very nice and polite man who then answered a general question on Zidane, who is an icon in France, a fantastic manager and used to be a fantastic player and he’s just politely answered that question. But Paul’s happy here, he’s going be a big part here and you like to build your team round him and that hasn’t changed at all.”

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad