Last week, Real Madrid missed out on the signing of Leny Yoro, who had been their top centre-back target for this summer’s transfer window. Yoro, who had entered the final year of his contract at Lille, joined Manchester United on a deal that could be worth as much as €70m in the future.

Yoro’s preference had been to join Real Madrid, but he gave up waiting on the reigning European Champions to agree a deal with Lille. One of the reasons that he was convinced of the Man United move came from a 10-minute discussion he had with Rio Ferdinand, a legend of the Premier League giants.

This was revealed by Yoro himself during a recent interview, and Relevo pointed out that Real Madrid used a similar trick 13 years ago when they signed Raphael Varane from RC Lens. On that occasion, the then-teenager was sold on the move by Zinedine Zidane – coincidentally, Man United were one of the clubs trying to sign Varane before he opted for Los Blancos.

Real Madrid may live to regret their decision not to stump up the cash for Yoro, especially as they have no clear alternative target.

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