Premier League outfit Everton reportedly wanted Espanyol’s La Liga centre-back Mario Hermoso in January but now Real Madrid are keen to bring him back.
Mario Hermoso is not exactly a household name right now but that could be about to change. Because reports in Spain say that Real Madrid are hoping to sign the talented Espanyol defender in 2019.
Interestingly, the 23-year-old started his career with the Madrid giants, playing for the club’s reserves between 2014 and 2017. But Hermoso has only really shown his qualities since leaving Los Blancos for Espanyol a year ago and has scored twice in eight La Liga games this season.
Now, reports in AS say that Real Madrid are considering an attempt to bring Hermoso back to the Bernabau, with a release clause in his contract worth around £35 million – though Madrid can sign him for a fraction of that due to a buy-back clause.
And these claims should be of interest to Everton. After all, the Premier League outfit failed in a bid to sign Hermoso as recently as the January transfer window.
That is according to Sport anyway. It was claimed that Everton were willing to pay £7 million for the former Spain U19 international but Espanyol refused to negotiate as they were desperate not to sell.
Everton were apparently scouting Hermoso ‘tirelessly’ – so it will be interesting to see whether they could go in for him again in January.
Kurt Zouma is only on loan from Chelsea while Phil Jagielka is 36 these days, meaning there is potentially room for one more centre-back.
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