With Cristiano Ronaldo’s move to Juventus confirmed, Real Madrid should swiftly zero in on the heir to his Galactico throne.
Coming off a third consecutive Champions League win, Real Madrid should be in a position of strength. However, following Zinedine Zidane’s shock resignation and the news hey’re selling Cristiano Ronaldo to Juventus, Los Blancos find themselves, as only they can, in relative instability. New manager Julen Lopetegui finds himself in the unenviable position of trying to replace the reigning Ballon d’Or winner and arguably the greatest player in Real’s history.
It’s not just Ronaldo’s prestige and past glories that make replacing him so difficult. He scored 44 goals in all competitions last season, roughly 30 percent of the team’s total. Such firepower will be difficult to replace, but not impossible. With that in mind, here are five potential replacements that would help fill the void while also fitting the big-name Galacticos policy of Florentino Perez.
5. Harry Kane
Out of all the options for Madrid this summer, this represents the most unlikely, as Kane just signed a six-year extension with Tottenham and Spurs also rebuffed advances for manager Mauricio Pochettino. Further business dealings between the clubs seem remote, at least for this summer.
This has never stopped Florentino Perez from trying, though, and as the signings of Luka Modric in 2012 and Gareth Bale in 2013 show, he’s willing to do business with Daniel Levy despite the latter’s noted prickliness in the transfer market.
None of these business concerns are as important as the fit, and since Madrid want goals to replace Ronaldo, they couldn’t do much better than the Spurs front man. The 24-year-old bagged 41 goals across all competitions last season, and he could improved on that number against La Liga’s less physical defenses and with more experienced teammates around him at the Bernabeu.
However, Kane lacks Ronaldo’s positional versatility. He’s very much a center forward, while Ronaldo, even at this stage of his career, can drift out to the wing. There would also be the question about what Lopetequi would do with Karim Benzema, who occupies a similar place on the pitch and is coming off a poor season, which may make it hard to move him in the transfer market.
Kane fits the Galactico prerequisite of having a stellar World Cup before Madrid come knocking on his door (he currently leads the Golden Boot race), but unless something drastically changes, he will remain a pipe dream for now as a Ronaldo replacement.