Football
Dermot Corrigan, Madrid correspondent 9y

Real Madrid must meet €15m asking price for Cruzeiro's Lucas Silva

Cruzeiro president Gilvan de Pinho Tavares says his club will only talk to Real Madrid about midfield starlet Lucas Silva if the La Liga giants officially meet the 15 million-euro asking price.

Madrid have been heavily linked with Brazil under-21 international Silva over recent months, with the European champions widely believed to be considering signing midfield cover in the January transfer window due to an injury to Luka Modric and continuing uncertainty over the future of Sami Khedira.

Many of Europe's other richest clubs, including Manchester United, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Juventus and Roma have also been linked with the player, who has yet to make his senior international debut for Brazil.

Cruzeiro chief Tavares told a news conference that there had been no official contact yet from the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu club and negotiations would not start until their asking price was met.

"There is no final offer," Tavares said. "We are waiting for an official offer. We have already set the market price. For less than 15 million euros, Cruzeiro will not start to talk."

The player himself, who was named the best defensive midfielder in the Brazilian league as his club won a second consecutive title this year, has regularly spoken about his hope of making the move to the Spanish capital.

However, most recently he told SporTV that his preference would be to stay at Cruzeiro for their 2015 Copa Libertadores campaign, then move to Europe for the start of the 2015-16 season.

"I do not know if they are going to propose that I arrive in the middle or at the end of the season, if I will stay to play in the Copa Libertadores or not," he said. "I do not know how it is going to happen or not.

"But it would be good to stay for the Libertadores and later arrive for preseason with the other players. It would be a dream [to move to Madrid]."

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