Man Utd and Man City in for Toni Kroos

Manchester United and Manchester City are ready to go head to head over the possible signing of Real Madrid midfielder Toni Kroos, according to reports in Spain.

El Chiringuito is reporting that Manchester United and Manchester City are both interested in signing German playmaker Toni Kroos from Real Madrid.

Kroos joined Los Blancos from Bayern Munich after winning the 2014 World Cup with Germany. The midfielder only had 12 months remaining on his contract at the Allianz Arena at the time, meaning Madrid were able to pick up the world class player for around £20 million.

However, it is believed that United were close to signing Kroos back then, and that manager David Moyes had sanctioned a deal to acquire the player, only for the deal to collapse after he was sacked in April 2014.

And it now appears that the Red Devils are ready to try again to sign the brilliant pass master.

Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola will be well aware of Kroos’s talents having worked with the midfielder for a year with Bayern.

Guardiola is thought to be keen to reunite with Kroos and him to his already impressive cast of midfielder which includes the likes of Ilkay Gundogan, Fernandinho, David Silva and Kevin De Bruyne.

Any deal for either of the Premier League giants will be made all the more difficult to pull off by the fact that Madrid have been levied with a transfer ban, meaning they would be unable to replace their number 8 until 2018 at the earliest.