Manchester City are prepared to rival Real Madrid and Barcelona in the race to sign Ajax prodigy Ryan Gravenberch.
The Ajax midfielder is one of the most desirable assets in European football at the moment, triggering intense interest from a number of elite clubs including Man City.
The 19-year-old has shown himself to be a player of the top grade, being extremely comfortable playing against high level Champions League opponents.
According to Mundo Deportivo, Madrid are after the midfielder as he fits the current transfer strategy of the club.
He stands at 6ft 2″ and possesses the technical quality needed to play in centre midfield for Madrid.
The favoured trio in the Los Blancos midfield remains Luka Modric, Toni Kroos and Casemiro, whose combined age almost reach triple digits.
It is hoped that Federico Valverde and summer signing Eduardo Camavinga will eventually replace their seniors in the midfield, along with Gravenberch and Aurelian Tchouameni who Madrid also wish to sign according to the report.
Barcelona are in the camp of simply needing quality. They have fallen so far away from their usually lofty standards this season and while they have a number of high profile midfielders such as Pedri and Frenkie de Jong, they lack quality in depth.
However, City are also in need of freshening up their midfield. Kevin De Bruyne, Ilkay Gundogan and Fernandinho are all in their 30s now, and while the former two still have a good few years left in them Pep Guardiola will not allow sentiment to get in the way of his squads progress, hence their reason for interest in Gravenberch.
The Dutchman has made 89 senior appearances for Ajax, scoring 10 times and assisting 11, decent numbers for a player who tends to operate more in the middle third than in the final third.
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