Transfer news and rumours of the day: 20th December, 2016

La Liga

Real Madrid transfer ban halved

The Court of Arbitration for Sport has reduced the ban on Real Madrid signing new players to one transfer window from two, the tribunal said on Tuesday. Switzerland-based CAS also ordered Real Madrid to pay a fine to global soccer body FIFA of 240,000 Swiss francs ($233,120), reduced from 360,000 francs.

The suspensions were initially imposed by FIFA's disciplinary committee in January for breaching rules on signing non-Spanish under-18 players. You can read more about it in detail here.

Real Madrid favourites to sign Julian Weigl

Zinedine Zidane is interested in signing both Dele Alli and Julian Weigl in the summer transfer window as he looks to reduce the average age of his Madrid squad. Casemiro remains the only proper defensive minded midfielder at Real Madrid and Zidane thinks Weigl will be perfect for the role.

Barcelona looking to sign either one of Joao Cancelo or Darjio Srna

The right back position has been a bit of a problem ever since Dani Alves’s departure and Luis Enrique has now come down to two options – Joao Cancelo or Darjio Srna to provided some much-needed backup to Sergi Roberto.

Atletico Madrid looking at Gabriel Barbosa as Antoine Griezmann’s replacement

Inter Milan forward Gabriel Barbosa has had a nightmarish start to his career at Inter Milan and Atletico Madrid could sign him and give him a new start if Antoine Girezmann decides to move to the Premier League in January.

Barcelona favourites to sign Paulo Dybala

Gonzalo Higuain might have cemented his place as the number 1 striker in Juventus, but Barcelona are still interested in signing Dybala even though he is not getting regular game time.

The Barcelona hierarchy has not been impressed with Paco Alcacer’s impact at see Dybala as the ideal long-term option to Luis Suarez.