The pictures of James Rodriguez in Madrid on Sunday went viral pretty quickly on social media.
This was followed by a report from Cadena Ser on Sunday evening that Real Madrid had wrapped up their deal for the Colombian World Cup star.
Not so, according to a report in L’Equipe today, with Monaco owner Dimitri Rybolovlev playing hardball over his prized asset.
Whilst Real Madrid already have a villa prepared for Rodriguez to move into, the deal is not done despite his arrival in Spain yesterday.
Rodriguez is now in Monaco as he looks to convince the Ligue 1 runners-up to accept the Real Madrid offer.
Discussions are continuing between Real Madrid and Monaco with Dmitry Rybolovlev holding out for 85 million euros and Florentino Perez offering 75 million euros.
Whilst the transfer is almost certain to happen, no Real Madrid players will be included. Angel Di Maria, Pepe, Sami Khedira and Diego Lopez have all rejected the chance to join Monaco.
It looks like yesterday’s fanfare in Madrid, was simply a ploy to push Monaco into agreeing a lower fee than they are prepared to accept.
Pretty standard fare from Real Madrid when they try and sign a Galactico…