Neither Mbappé nor Endrick, this Messi's teammate was targeted by Real Madrid

Last summer Karim Benzema surprised fans around the world when he decided to leave Real Madrid after almost 15 years to join Saudi Arabia's Al-Ittihad, following in the footsteps of Cristiano Ronaldo. That caused an unexpected problem for Carlo Ancelotti, who found himself without his best striker this season.

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The only player who arrived in that sector of the field was Joselu, who had had a good season with Espanyol. Although he scored some goals and showed interesting performances, he has been far from the level needed to be the main centre-forward of Los Merengues. That's why since then newspapers, TV shows and social media have speculated about the arrival of a player of higher quality to take that place.

And it is clear that Florentino Perez thought the same, as in recent months he agreed to sign Endrick in exchange for more than $70 million to join in July, once he turns 18. And that's not all. According to reports, negotiations are underway for Kylian Mbappé to become a Real Madrid player once his contract with Paris Saint-Germain expires on July 1.

However, neither of them were apparently Los Merengues' first choice. In an interview with Eurosport, Lucas Beltran shocked everyone by revealing: "Roma, Fiorentina and Real Madrid contacted me, but I chose Fiorentina because it was the club that showed the most interest in me".

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Who is he?

Lucas Beltran is a 22-year-old Argentine striker who emerged from River Plate, where he was a teammate of Manchester City's Julian Alvarez and Chelsea's Enzo Fernandez. After excelling for a few months there, he was bought last year by Fiorentina for nearly $27 million. He has since scored 8 goals in 31 games in Italy, and was called up by Lionel Scaloni to the Argentina national team alongside stars such as Lionel Messi, Angel Di Maria and Lautaro Martinez.