Lionel Messi wants Real Madrid superstar at Barcelona, Zidane and Ramos veto the signing of €180 million superstar and more: Transfer Roundup, 9 June 2019

Arturo Vidal and Lionel Messi want James Rodriguez

James Rodriguez's future is the subject of a lot of speculation right now. Now, to add fuel to the fire, Arturo Vidal has said that he wants to play with the Colombian. If that wasn't enough, reports in Spain claim that Lionel Messi has long been a fan of the Real Madrid midfielder who is on loan at Bayern Munich and would like to play alongside him.

Vidal said,

"I hope you play with me, I would love but he has to make the best decision, is an extraordinary player.

Arturo Vidal has played with James Rodriguez at Bayern Munich. It has been reported over the past couple of weeks that Rodriguez has asked Bayern Munich to not sign him. However, the chances of Real Madrid selling him are as good as the chances of them keeping him beyond the summer.

However, it remains to be seen whether the Barcelona top brass will relent since Rodriguez has been pretty inconsistent over the past few seasons.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Arvind Sriram