Tuesday 28 June 2016 19:09, UK
Real Madrid will have to "sell big" if they are to land Juventus midfielder Paul Pogba this summer, according to a Spanish football finance expert.
Former Barcelona chief marketing and commercial officer Esteve Calzada feels Madrid will sell Spanish striker Alvaro Morata after exercising the buy-back clause in his contract from Juventus - and that the player would be a perfect fit for the Premier League.
Morata, who rejoined Real for a pre-arranged fee reported to be £24.8m, scored three goals for Spain at Euro 2016 before they were knocked out of the tournament.
But Calzada feels the European champions will now attempt to transfer the player to ensure they fall in line with Financial Fair Play regulations as they prepare a bid to sign French midfielder Pogba, who is also at Juventus.
"My bet is that Real Madrid will sell Morata," he said. "And he would only go to the Premier League. This will be a transfer which is not less than 60m euros (£50m).
"He's tall and fast and that suits the English style very well, he would do very well here. He is like a much younger Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
"This is just my guess but I think it will be a trading movement because they may finally go for Paul Pogba this summer and if they do that, they need to be aware of FFP. They need to sell big to buy big.
"Of course they are dealing with Juventus but the value of Morata was already set in the contract they have, but Real Madrid will need to sell players, certainly.
"All teams have to fall in line with the regulations and balance their accounts, even if they have backers with a lot of financial resources.
"They all have to generate income from players. In the past five years there has been a big shift in that trend.
"Five years ago the teams with the biggest player sales would have been Porto, Sevilla, Atletico Madrid, Benfica, teams like that.
"Now it's topped by the top teams in Europe and that's because they all have to sell players now."
