Real enter Ballack race

Real Madrid are thought to be weighing up a move for Michael Ballack.

Michael Ballack is thought to be stalling over a new deal at Bayern Munich as he holds out for a move to Real Madrid.

Reports emanating from Spain suggest Real are keeping tabs on Ballack's contract situation at Bayern.

With only one year left on his current deal at Bayern, Madrid are understood to have already said that they are not prepared to pay more than ‚é¼10 million for the 28-year-old.

Ballack's future has been the subject of intense speculation in recent weeks, with Manchester United mooted to be showing an interest in his services.

However, Spanish daily Marca suggests Ballack has made it clear that he fancies a move to Spain, even though he knows that he will not be guaranteed a place in Madrid's starting line-up.

The former Bayer Leverkusen star had stated that he wanted to stay in the Bundesliga until after next year's World Cup Finals, but the offer from Madrid could be too tempting.

He held talks with the nine-times European champions before moving to Bayern and was the subject of a bid from Barcelona last summer.

Madrid president, Florentino Perez, is keen to exploit the fact that Ballack could move for free in 12 months time and will offer Bayern around ‚é¼8 million as an opening bid.

But Perez has also warned that adding to the squad can only happen once the futures of certain players at El Santiago Bernabeu has been resolved.

Michael Owen, Guti, Luis Figo and Walter Samuel have all been rumoured to be available at the right price and Madrid will be keen to sell at least two of them to finance a move for Ballack.