Spanish Football Expert Claims Real Madrid Will Prioritise Signing Eden Hazard Over Mohamed Salah

Spanish football journalist Guillem Balague has claimed that Real Madrid intend to sign Chelsea's Eden Hazard this summer, and will not prioritise a move for in-form Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah.

The Egyptian has been prolific for the Reds since arriving from Roma last summer, scoring 36 goals across all competitions. His form has inevitably led to speculation over a move to the Spanish capital, with Florentino Perez eyeing a summer makeover in attack.

Balague, though, has insisted that Real Madrid have not identified Salah as a prime target, despite links in the press.

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“Salah is a difficult one because Real Madrid have no mention of him as a candidate to be a Galactico,” Balague told Sky Sports' Sunday Supplement Podcast.

“You can think there is a market in Egypt and he is a star of the Premier League - he has a lot of things to go for him - but if they get Hazard they won’t need Salah.

“It seems like they wouldn’t put that much money into Salah. The summer is so long and anything can happen."

Balague also claimed that both Hazard and Bayern Munich front man Robert Lewandowski - who some reports claim has all but agreed a move - are 'desperate' to complete summer moves to the Spanish capital.

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“Hazard is desperate to come and Lewandowski is desperate to come,” he added.

Salah's form in recent weeks has led to comparisons with Barcelona's Lionel Messi, which became more widespread after he hit four goals against Watford in his last Liverpool outing.

There had been speculation that Salah would reject any summer advances to sign a new contract extension with Liverpool. However, the star's agent Ramy Abbas Issa poured cold water on those reports, with a couple of tweets which seemed to call out the report as 'fake news'.