Manchester United have approached Real Madrid about the possibility of signing midfielder Casemiro.
The 30-year-old is under contract at Real until 2025 and played an instrumental role in their Champions League final victory over Liverpool in May.
It is unclear if Casemiro is remotely receptive to joining United or whether his representative is using United as a negotiation tactic to obtain an improved salary, but sources say Casemiro is deemed more attainable than Barcelona midfielder Frenkie de Jong.
Also read: What United need in the last weeks of the window
Casemiro has won the Champions League five times with Real and is a regular for the Brazil national team. United, bottom of the Premier League, face a season in the Europa League.
United's disastrous transfer window took a turn for the worse on Tuesday night when their move for Juventus midfielder Adrien Rabiot collapsed due to the Frenchman's extravagant salary demands.
The club had agreed a fee of £15million rising to £20m for Rabiot, having had an €85m offer for De Jong accepted by Barcelona last month.
De Jong has always preferred to stay at Barcelona and United have not made any headway on a deal since football director John Murtough and chief executive Richard Arnold flew to Catalonia five weeks ago.
The Manchester Evening News understands Murtough is coming under mounting pressure, having also travelled to Turin to try and clinch a deal for Rabiot.
Murtough assumed the football director role in March 2021 but United have only signed left-back Tyrell Malacia, playmaker Christian Eriksen and centre-back Lisandro Martinez this summer.
The specific failure to recruit an out-and-out central midfielder has baffled supporters, compounded by United's willingness to sell academy midfielder James Garner.
Real have signed young French midfielders Eduardo Camavinga and Aurelien Tchouameni over the last year, the latter the record signing of this summer at £85.3million.
United held discussions with Camavinga, 20, while he was still at Rennes last year but he favoured a move to Spain and Tchouameni was scouted last season.
Casemiro started on the bench in Real's opening weekend win at Almeria on Sunday but he lined up in last week's Super Cup triumph against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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