Less than a week after Raheem Sterling publicly cast doubt on his future at Liverpool, Real Madrid have become the latest team to be linked to the 20-year-old striker.
In an interview last week with BBC Sport, Sterling confirmed he had rejected a contract extension from Liverpool worth £100,000-a-week, while at the same time admitting he was "flattered" to hear of Arsenal's interest.
Those comments caused much speculation over the Easter period – during which Liverpool were thrashed 4-1 by Arsenal – and the words of Zinedine Zidane will only further up the ante.Zidane, the Frenchman who inspired his country to World Cup glory in 1998, is in charge of Real Madrid's B-team, and also acts as an unofficial scout for the first-team squad. What he says carries great weight at the Bernabeu and when asked if Real were interested in Sterling, Zidane replied: "We know who Raheem Sterling is, and of course we are monitoring him as a player. There are very few players in the world who can improve the Real Madrid squad, so it is going to make sense we monitor the progress of the best young players in the world."Zidane explained that Real had tracked the progress of Gareth Bale for more than a year before signing him from Spurs in the summer of 2013 for a world record fee of £86m. "We monitor many of the best young players in Europe, then if we feel they have something to offer Real Madrid we will contact their club and try and make the next step."Sterling is contracted to Liverpool until 2017 but Zidane's comments will only heighten the fear within Anfield that they will struggle to hang on to their precocious young England striker at the end of the season. Although Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers declared recently that Sterling is "not going anywhere in the summer", should the Reds fail to qualify for next season's Champions League they might be forced to sell a player who wants to play in Europe's showpiece competition.Saturday's defeat to Arsenal leaves Liverpool in fifth spot, seven points adrift of Manchester City who currently occupy the fourth Champions League berth. In the short-term, however, the focus of Sterling and his teammates will be Wednesday night's trip to Blackburn for their FA Cup quarter-final replay.
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Defeat would end the Reds' hopes of any silverware this season and only increase the likelihood that Sterling will press for a move to a more successful club in the summer.
