Madrid eyes a star in 2018 World Cup

As with every other club around Europe, Real Madrid are likely to be keeping a close eye on the World Cup this summer for potential transfer targets.

A new era will begin at the Bernabeu next season, with Julen Lopetegui being appointed as Zinedine Zidane’s successor as he looks to maintain the club’s incredible level of success in recent years.

The French tactician left with three consecutive Champions League triumphs along with a La Liga title and countless other honours, and so it will be quite the task to ensure that there is no drop off moving forward.

In order to do that, Lopetegui will hope to see the squad strengthened while also stamping his own mark on the group in order to avoid simply inheriting the same group and doing minimal work to make it his own project.

According to AS, that recruitment drive could start with Colombia star Juan Quintero, with Real Madrid reportedly already making contact for the Porto star.

The 25-year-old had an underwhelming campaign last year, scoring one goal while providing three assists in 15 appearances as he went sent out on loan to River Plate.

However, although Colombia must still secure a positive result against Senegal to advance to the last-16 of the World Cup, they have impressed through their first two games with Quintero in particular standing out.

It appears as though those impressive outings have captured the attention of Real Madrid, as per AS, while it’s also noted how he has already previously played under Lopetegui at Porto, which will give the Spaniard a good idea of what he’s capable of.

It remains to be seen if a move materializes, but Quintero has certainly showed enough attacking quality, creativity and technical class to suggest that he is capable of making the step up for Real Madrid.