It’s an open secret that Real Madrid admire Trent Alexander-Arnold, with numerous links over the last year or so suggesting the Spanish champions want the England international as a long-term successor to Dani Carvajal.
The Spanish has turned 32 and has a contract which expires in summer 2025, coincidentally that is when Trent’s Liverpool contract runs out.
The Champions League and Premier League-winning defender is about to enter the last 12 months of his latest deal and worryingly for Reds supporters, there has only been deafening silence up to now regarding a renewal.
That means a headache for incoming sporting director Richard Hughes and his new boss, FSG’s CEO of Football, Michael Edwards, as they grapple with setting the blueprint for the post-Jurgen Klopp era.
If there is no progress made on a new deal, Liverpool might have to face the unthinkable and consider selling the 25-year-old in the next transfer window or else risk losing him for free next summer.
And according to transfer guru Fabrizio Romano, that is precisely what the decision makers at Santiago Bernabeu have got in mind for Alexander-Arnold.
Los Blancos have had a good strike rate with free agents in recent seasons, persuading David Alaba and Antonio Rudiger to move to the Spanish capital upon the expiration of their Bayern Munich and Chelsea deals respectively.
This summer they look like landing the biggest free agent prize of them all, in the shape of France captain Kylian Mbappe.
The Trent plotline is one to keep an eye on over the next few months, according to Romano, as Real Madrid intend to tie him down when his Liverpool contract runs out.
Alexander-Arnold is known to be close to England colleague Jude Bellingham – now a LaLiga title winner with Real – and recently named Zinedine Zidane and Cristiano Ronaldo as his dream party guests.
“Another player they love but I think it could be more next summer in case he doesn’t extend the contract is Trent Alexander Arnold,” the Italian journalist tells Mics. “He is a player they love, he is a player they’re following so I think it’s another target they have.”
