Spanish giants Real Madrid are reportedly tracking Brazilian teenager Leo Santos, after being impressed by his performances in the U-17 World Cup. The 17-year-old defender plays for Brazilian side Corinthians and has caught the eye of Madrid scouts.
As per UOL.com, a Brazilian website, Los Blancos are keeping an eye on the defender and could make a move for them in the future.
The teenage defender hasn’t played for Corinthian’s first-team yet, but has featured for the Reserve side and has put excellent performances, which will see him promoted to the first-team squad soon.
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Santos was first spotted by Madrid scouts in last year’s U-17 World Cup, where he was part of the Brazilian squad which were eliminated in the quarter-finals.
The 6’1” defender has been reportedly tracked by Madrid for the last two weeks and Madrid, if they do sign the youngster, will move him to Real Madrid Castilla to get playing time before moving him to the Real Madrid first-team.
The youngster’s agent is Mino Raiola – the agent of Paul Pogba, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and numerous other superstars – who is known to be business-like and could quicken the move from Brazil to Spain.
Madrid, though, cannot sign any players in the next few transfer windows as they have been given a ban on registering new players. The club were found guilty of certain irregularities in purchasing under-18 players from foreign countries. The ban was imposed on them in September 2016 for the next two transfer windows.
Since the arrival of club legend Zinedine Zidane as Real Madrid manager, several youngsters have been promoted to the first-team, even displacing world-class players from the starting XI.
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The French manager played midfielder Casemiro on several occasions last season and the Brazilian was also an integral part of the first-team before injury stopped his progress. Zidane has also provided an opportunity to youngsters Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez, which bodes well with those talented youngsters who sign for Madrid.
Real Madrid top the La Liga table and are two points clear of arch-rivals Barcelona.
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