Manchester United have tabled a £52.2million bid for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, according to a reliable journalist.
Sky Sports Italy correspondent Gianluca Di Marzio has claimed on his personal website that the Premier League giants have lodged their opening offer for the 24-year-old.
The transfer expert reports that Real rejected the monster bid as they are holding out for a fee of £78million for Morata.
The 20-times Spain international has just completed an impressive campaign for Real in which he scored 20 goals and supplied six assists from 43 matches in all competitions as the club clinched La Liga and the Champions League.
However, the Madrid-born spearhead was frequently on the substitute’s bench for the key matches and played just a single minute of Real’s 4-1 Champions League final win against Juventus last Saturday.
He has had to get used to playing second fiddle to first-choice centre-forward Karim Benzema at the Bernabeu.
Morata graduated from the Real academy to make his first team debut in December 2010, before exiting for Juventus in the summer of 2014 for £17.5million.
In two seasons with the Italian champions, Morata won two Serie A titles, two Coppa Italia titles and was part of a run to the 2015 Champions League final, scoring as Juve lost 3-1 to Barcelona.
In June 2016, Real Madrid exercised a buy-back clause to bring Morata back from Juventus for £26.2million, and the forward’s value has continued to grow even though he is not a first-team mainstay under Zinedine Zidane.