Manchester United ready to make bid for Real Madrid’s Raphaël Varane

Manchester United are preparing to make a bid to Real Madrid for the centre-back Raphaël Varane. The France international has one year left on his contract and would like to play in the Premier League.

Madrid have offered the 28-year-old world champion a contract extension but he has yet to accept it and is considering his options after 10 years at the club, having won three La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues in that time.

United are confident that personal terms would not be a problem and are prepared to offer the Frenchman a contract until 2026. They approached Madrid for initial discussions last week and they were amicable enough to give United hope that a deal is possible.

Varane is currently on holiday and will make a decision once he is back and has spoken to Real. He does not want to go against the club’s wishes after so long in the Spanish capital and will wait to see how discussions between Real and United unfold. Once Varane has held talks with Real the Spanish club will decide whether they are prepared to let him go and how much he would cost.

Real Madrid have already lost Sergio Ramos to Paris Saint-Germain this summer with David Alaba joining from Bayern Munich, both on free transfers.

United are hoping to make the Jadon Sancho transfer from Borussia Dortmund for an initial £73m official this week. Speaking about it after a 2-1 friendly win against Derby County on Sunday, the Manchester United manager, Ole Gunnar Solskjær, said: “From what I understand only paperwork, small little details, hopefully we can announce something [soon]. Let’s get all the paperwork done and get him over the line and then I can say what I truly feel about the player.”