Reports: Real Madrid to bid €45m for 22-year-old to replace Luka Modric

Dani Ceballos and Mateo Kovacic have not impressed Zinedine Zidane

Paris St-Germain midfielder Adrien Rabiot will be Real Madrid's key summer target with Florentino Perez all set to launch a €45 million bid for the Frenchman, according to a report in British news outlet, The Daily Star. With Luka Modric's powers in midfield on the wane, Real Madrid have been especially pro-active in securing a midfielder who can replace the Croatian's stellar performance levels in the long term. However, summer recruits Dani Ceballos and Marcos Llorente have reportedly failed to impress Zinedine Zidane in training, and the Frenchman has encouraged Florentino Perez to secure the services of compatriot Adrien Rabiot as a result.

Rabiot spent much of his youth career bouncing around multiple minor clubs in France, although curiously enough, he had a short spell at Manchester City, aged 13. In 2010, Rabiot finally joined PSG, spending two years in their youth system, before making his first-team debut aged 17. A loan to Toulouse soon followed, with his impressive performances resulting in PSG inculcating him as a bonafide first-team player. However, Rabiot saw his path into the first-team blocked by a number of midfield stars and thus was on the verge of leaving the club in 2015.

Regular game time has seen Rabiot's stance towards staying at PSG considerably soften, with the Frenchman signing a contract until 2019. After Blaise Matuidi's departure, Rabiot has been pivotal as the foundation based on which PSG's mouth-watering trio of Edi Cavani, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe operate. The Frenchman has featured in every single one of PSG's 19 games this season, with 2 goals and 4 assists to show for his endeavours.
Florentino Perez has been left suitably impressed with Rabiot, and seeks to make the versatile Frenchman the successor of Luka Modric, lining up a €45 million bid. Real Madrid's reasoning for such a low opening offer centres around the midfielder already having spoken of his admiration for Los Blancos in the past.

"I am under contract until 2019 and I do not think I am in a rush. Honestly, I am not thinking about that," Rabiot said in an interview last year. "If there are offers from big clubs, that obviously demands that they are considered. Clubs like Real Madrid, they are truly great clubs but, truly, the most important thing is the present and I am concentrating on what I am doing right now, that is the best thing to do."
  
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With Mateo Kovacic and Dani Ceballos already present in Real Madrid's squad, it is perhaps a bit confusing why Los Blancos are in search of a central midfielder. However, the potential that the 22-year-old Rabiot possesses is much greater than either of the Madrid pair, and when Florentino Perez