River Plate president says Real Madrid are not close to signing Exequiel Palacios
River Plate midfielder Exequiel Palacios is one of the players to be linked with a move to Real Madrid in January but club president Rodolfo D’Onofrio has stated that there has been no progress in the negotiations with the La Liga giants.
A product of River Plate’s youth system, Palacios made his senior debut back in 2015 and has established himself as one of the hottest young properties in the Argentina Primera Division, attracting interest from a number of top European clubs.
A central midfielder by trade, the 20-year-old is currently one of the first names on the team sheet for River Plate and played an important role in the Copa Libertadores final as River Plate beat rivals Boca Juniors 3-1. A regular at the U21 level for Argentian, Palacios made his senior international debut in September and has earned rave reviews for his fine displays.
D’Onofrio acknowledged that discussions had taken place in the past but the Spanish club hasn’t made any progress in the negotiations over Palacios.
D’Onofrio told Radio La Red: “With Real Madrid, we only spoke on one occasion. Emilio Butragueno (Real Madrid’s director of institutional relations) called Enzo Francescoli (River’s sports director) and told him that they would like to talk to us about the player.
“But when we were in Spain, they did not make any contact with us about him.”