Despite starting his career at Barcelona, Giovani dos Santos looks set to complete a move to arch-rivals Real Madrid if the rumours are to be believed. Reports emanating from the foreign media claim that Madrid have lodged a £5M bid for the Mexican playmaker, but it seems as though Harry Redknapp is holding out for £6.5M for the 22-year old.
Although tipped to reach the top when he arrived at Tottenham Hotspur, his development seemed to stall in North London, and his initial performances seemed to lack the flair and ingenuity he was being praised for previously. Redknapp also soon began to question dos Santos’ professionalism, and shipped him off to Ipswich Town where he hoped the youngster would mature as a player.
This spell in the Championship, and a subsequent loan to Turkish giants Galatarsaray, did very little to raise dos Santos’ stock, the midfielder still performing inconsistently, and not to the heights most believed he was capable of. However, his recent loan move to Racing Santander did exactly the opposite, as he played extremely well, and finally seemed to display the maturity that Redknapp wanted from him.
With Niko Kranjcar just waiting to leave, Luka Modric possibly headed to Stamford Bridge, and Steven Pienaar yet to make a real impression at White Hart Lane, it remains to be seen with Redknapp would really want to lose a midfield talent such as dos Santos, especially one who seems to have found his form at last.
However, should dos Santos make the move to Madrid, then he will join a list of football greats such as Bernd Schuster, Michael Laudrup, Luis Figo and Ronaldo, who have all played for Barcelona before going on to represent Madrid.
