Militao replacement: Real Madrid eye star who's DESPERATE to join

Tom Weber

Updated: 11 Nov 2024 10:32 CST
4 min read

Eder Militao, Real Madrid, 2024/25 — © IMAGO

Jonathan Tah has become a target for Real Madrid following Eder Militao's ACL injury, according to Spanish media.

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The Brazilian centre-back has torn his ACL for the second season running and is expected to be out for nine months. In Joan Martinez, David Alaba, Dani Carvajal and now Militao, Real Madrid currently have four players sidelined with ACL injuries.

The latest setback, suffered in a gruelling clash with Osasuna on Saturday, leaves Real Madrid desperately short of centre-back options, with Antonio Rudiger now the only reliable player remaining. But the German, too, has not always been at 100 per cent in recent weeks, just like stand-in defender Aurelien Tchouameni.

Real Madrid had wanted to sign Leny Yoro but rather than coughing up the required money in the summer, they sought to use their gravitas to get him to see out his Lille contract and join for free next year. It spectacularly backfired as he moved to Man Utd instead, leaving Real Madrid scrambling for reinforcements.

Real Madrid eye Tah

Alarm bells are ringing in Spain's capital and Real Madrid, previously calm about the situation, are now willing to make moves in January. The problem, however, could be attainability.

Links with club legend Sergio Ramos have been played down, but there are other targets, according to AS. Aymeric Laporte, Castello Lukeba and Jonathan Tah are among the options under consideration.

Signing Lukeba will be nigh on impossible. He recently extended his RB Leipzig contract and has a €90 million release clause for the summer. In January, the clause won't yet be active, so it would take a world-record fee to get the Bundesliga side to sell.

Laporte and Tah could be more attainable. The latter in particular seems a real option, either for the winter or the summer. Tah is out of contract in 2025 and is desperate to leave Bayer Leverkusen.

Rudiger's partner at national team level, the German would have no trouble slotting into the side. However, it is unclear if Leverkusen are prepared to sell in January, though it would represent their final chance of securing a fee.

In the summer, Leverkusen were involved in a dirty transfer war with Bayern Munich over Tah and ultimately refused to budge from their valuation, which was a mistake according to the player's agent Pini Zahavi.

He recently told a German outlet: "Jonathan will join a big club next summer. And Bayern still has a very good chance of getting him. Unfortunately, Leverkusen demanded too much money [in the summer].

"The idea was for him to go to FC Bayern, and the club really wanted to sign him. We would have liked to bring Leverkusen a transfer fee. Now they won’t get any money. In my opinion, that’s a mistake.”