Reds eye up Valencia ace

Albiol attracting Benitez's interest

By Franciso Acedo   Last updated: 3rd March 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Reds eye up Valencia ace

Albiol: Highly-rated

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Liverpool are keeping close tabs on Spain international Raul Albiol, skysports.com understands.

The Valencia defender is rated amongst the best in La Liga, but money problems at The Mestalla could see them lose a number of their top stars.

And Albiol may be one of the first to depart with a host of clubs checking on his progress.

Real Madrid are long-term admirers of the 24-year-old, who can play in central defence or as a holding midfielder, but Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has now dispatched his scouting network to follow Albiol.

Albiol is currently contracted to Valencia for another two years and has a huge buy-out clause of nearly £50million - although reports in Spain now suggest they could be willing to do a deal at £13million.

Valencia's sporting director Fernando Gomez has admitted the club would have to consider any reasonable offers, and also confirmed they were aware of scouts from Liverpool tracking Albiol.

"Today it is necessary to study each offer that we receive and after that we would decide," he told skysports.com.

"The money situation is complicated at the club, but formally nobody has spoken with us about Abiol.

"But we are aware that the Reds have been scouting around here in recent months."

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