Real Madrid withdraw from Paul Pogba race

Real Madrid have ended their interest in signing Manchester United target Paul Pogba, according to reports.

Sky Sports claims that the Liga giants have no intention of engaging in a bidding war for the France and Juventus midfielder, with United reportedly willing to make Pogba the world’s first £100m (€120m) player and pay him £250,000 a week.

Real have consistently used their financial muscle to land preferred transfer targets, and it has been reported by Spanish expert Guillem Balague that Pogba would rather move to the Santiago Bernabeu. However the sheer scale of the outlay appears to have put off even Real’s big-spending president Florentino Perez. The midfielder would be United’s fourth major singing of the summer after Eric Bailly, Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Henrikh Mkhitaryan.

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Manager Jose Mourinho said the club wanted to make four reinforcements during the transfer window. Pogba left United for Juventus for nominal compensation in 2012 after contract talks broke down – potentially making United’s inability to retain him the most expensive mistake of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign.