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World Cup winner and Real Madrid goalkeeper Iker Casillas is not guaranteed a starting place in the Spanish national side, according to coach Vicente del Bosque.

The shotstopper was dropped from the side that bet Belarus on Friday evening, with del Bosque opting for Barcelona keeper Victor Valdes instead. Casillas has endured a difficult year to date, having been controversially dropped by former Los Blancos manager Jose Mourinho in January.

Many pundits had expected Casillas to regain his place ahead of Diego Lopez once Carlo Ancelotti took over in the summer, but the Italian boss has stuck with Lopez in La Liga so far this season. He has said 32-year-old Casillas will play for Los Blancos in the Champions League and Copa del Rey however.

Speaking ahead of Spain’s final World Cup qualifier against Georgia, del Bosque stated: “We’ll surely make some changes and one of them could be in goal.  We have three fantastic goalkeepers and any one of them can play. It’s not a problem to decide between them. If there’s a problem, it’s the number of options we have.”

Casillas has been linked with a January move away from the Santiago Bernabeu in a bid to gain regular first team football that would boost his chances of his place in the Spain team. He has been linked with moves to Manchester City, Arsenal and PSG.

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Real Madrid defender Raphael Varane has said his dream of playing for France at the World Cup in Brazil helped him overcome his injury.

The youngster made a huge impression with Los Blancos last season, impressing many with his performances, particularly in the semi-final of the Copa del Rey against Barcelona. But a knee injury sustained in a match against Espanyol ended his season early and Los Blancos crashed out of the Champions League and lost the final of the Copa against city rivals Atletico de Madrid.

Almost five months later, Varane made his comeback from injury, featuring in the Champions League group match against FC Copenhagen, which Real won 4-0. The French defender said he now has eyes on winning major prizes with the Santiago Bernabeu side, but also has one eye on the World Cup.

Speaking to Fifa.com, Varane said: “It was my first serious injury. It wasn’t until later that I started thinking about the World Cup and I told myself that I needed to come back fit, and fast too.

“Zizou was important for me. He saw how impatient I was getting during the pre-season and he calmed me down, something he’s pretty good at. It’s only normal, though. If you don’t have that desire, then there’s not much point being on a football pitch.”

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Spanish sports newspaper Marca reveals today that Sami Khedira is unhappy with his current situation at Real Madrid. “Khedira is fed up”, the Madrid daily titles.

Marca claims “Ozil’s exit has isolated him from the group”. “The club doesn’t consider him irreplaceable” and “some fans have blamed him for the team’s bad results” they add.

The most sold Spanish paper also publishes Khedira’s latest statement: “I’m sad for how Spain’s press treats me, just because my signing was cheap and I was Mourinho’s disciple”, he said.

Meanwhile, As publishes a special report about Florentino Perez’s decision to fire Vicente del Bosque in 2003, as today is the tenth aniversary. “With Del Bosque, Real won six titles and Barca none”, they title.

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Carlo Ancelotti to Real Madrid

Real Madrid boss Carlo Ancelotti has said he may retire when the curtain falls on his time at the Santiago Bernabeu club.

The Italian only took over from Jose Mourinho in the summer and for the time being is working hard on winning a 10th Champions League for the club – the coveted Decima as it is known by the Madrid press and fans. Los Blancos have lost once in La Liga this season and find themselves five points behind Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid as the also look to wrestle back the title.

Speaking to AS newspaper, Ancelotti said he could see himself enjoying retirement when the time comes to leave the Real Madrid dugout, despite rumours that he wants to end his coaching career at Roma in Seria A or with the Italian national side.

The 54-year-old said: “Coaching Roma or Italy? That’s not the the first time I have been asked this question. The only thing I can say that after Real Madrid I will consider my options, I might decide to retire, I might even decide to give up smoking.”

Ancelotti has enjoyed huge success as a manager, most notably in his time in charge at AC Milan. He guided them to two Champions League wins along with a Seria A title and Coppa Italia, two European Supercopas, and a World Club Cup. In his time as Chelsea boss he won the Premier League and FA Cup, and most recently won the Ligue 1 championship in France with PSG.

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Real Madrid duo Angel di Maria and Sami Khedira have returned to the club following their spells away with their respective international sides.

Di Maria had been away with Argentina, but coach Alejandro Sabella allowed the 25-year-old to return to the Santiago Bernabeu early as he looks at a number of fringe players when the South American side take on Uruguay in a World Cup qualifier on Tuesday. Argentina have already qualified for the tournament in Brazil next summer.

Fellow Los Blancos midfielder Khedira played fro Germany in his side’s match against the Republic of Ireland on Friday evening. But a booking in that game, which the Germans won 3-0, means he is suspended for the final qualifying game against Sweden. Joachim Low’s team have also qualified for the World Cup already.

The pair will now return to the Spanish capital to rest and begin their preparations for the La Liga match against Malaga at the weekend. Real Madrid lie third in the table at the moment, five points off the pacesetters Barcelona and Atletico de Madrid. A win is vital for Carlo Ancelotti’s men as they go into the Clasico against the Catalan side a week later and won’t want to lose any more ground in the title race.

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Gareth Bale’s possible chronic back injury is creating a lot of debate. If it finally turns out to be something serious -something Real Madrid have denied- Los Blancos would miss the 91-million-euro player.

However, in the unlikely scenario that the Welshman’s injury would prevent him from playing football, Los Blancos have covered their options with a multimillion euro insurance deal, according to Spanish website ElConfidencial.com.

The club spends 4.5 million euros a year on full insurance for all their players. That covers any kind of eventuality, both on or away from the football field.

If one of Real’s footballers had to end his career because of a serious injury, the insurance would guarantee Los Merengues would get the transfer money in return. In the case of Bale, that would be 91 million euros.

That happened a few years ago with Ruben de la Red. Real Madrid’s home-grown midfielder was recommended to stop playing football at 25-years-old due to a serious heart ailment. Los Blancos were refunded the six million euros they had paid to Getafe for bringing him back to the Santiago Bernabeu.

This insurance also covers any injury that lasts for more than one month. The last to use it was Marcelo. In his case, Real also received 1,250,688 euros in compensation from FIFA’s player protection program, since the Brazilian got injured in an international game.

At the moment, Real Madrid works with Willis brokers to manage their insurance deals, organising a public tender every two years in order to increase their player’s insurance value.

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Former Roma president Rosella Sensi has revealed that she turned down “an important offer from Real Madrid” for midfielder Daniele de Rossi while she was in charge.

Sensi, who was the club’s head from 2008 to 2011, told Italian website Vocegiallorossa.it she was very criticised for having rejected the offer, but she doesn’t regret it.

“Real made an important offer for De Rossi and I’ve been very criticised for turning it down, but for me De Rossi has always been irreplaceable and I’m really happy so see him at his best level again, just like Totti, he’s the spine of the team”, she said.

Rosella Sensi was the second woman to become AS Roma’s president, after her father Franco Sensi passed out while he was in charge. He had been the owner of the club since 1993.

The offer revealed by Rosella Sensi could have taken place in the summer of 2010, when Jose Mourinho arrived to Santiago Bernabeu.

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Real Madrid forward Karim Benzema has expressed his relief at finally ending his goal drought for France in the 6-0 friendly win over Australia.

The 25-year-old striker netted in the second half as the French ran riot in Paris against the Socceroos. And the headed goal by Benzema ended a 16-month drought – his last goal for Les Bleus came against Estonia in June 2012.

Benzema, who was jeered some some sections of the France crowd during the 1,222 minute dry spell, said the lack of goals had become a worry for him and that he was delighted it was at an end.

Speaking to the press after the match he stated: “I have managed to score the goal that had weighed a little on my mind. I thank all the team who have been behind me. It was nice to be supported by the public. There is another game on Tuesday (against Finland) and we will need the win.”

Benzema, who joined Los Blancos from Lyon in 2009, has had a slow start to the season at the Santiago Bernabeu, netting just twice in eight La Liga matches. Now he has found his goalscoring touch again, he’ll be hoping to carry his form into La Liga, starting with Madrid’s match against Malaga next weekend.

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Spain’s most sold newspaper, Marca, claims today that Real Madrid have shown Oporto their interest in signing striker Jackson Martinez.

“The Colombian joins Luis Suarez, Radamel Falcao and Robert Lewandowski as the possible forwards for the future”, Marca publishes. The Madrid sports daily points out that Los Blancos will not sign a striker in January, so whoever arrives will move next summer.

Jackson was close to signing for Monaco last summer, but negotiations broke in the last minute. He was Portugal’s league top scorer last year, netting 26 goals.

The other Madrid sports newspaper, As, titles in its front page “Balegate”, in a reference to the repercussion that Gareth Bale’s back problems have had in the United Kingdom. “British press debates about the Welshman’s back”, they report.

As highlights the Daily Mirror affirmed “Bale will need surgery”, while the Daily Telegraph reports “the World’s most expensive player suffers a chronic injury”. As also points out the Daily Mail suggests “Real Madrid could have made a mistake”.

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Real Madrid player Isco is La Liga’s most fouled midfielder so far this season in Spain, according to latest statistics.

The 21-year-old, a summer signing from Malaga, has been fouled 27 times in the first eight matches of the campaign – twice more than Elche’s Carles Gil in second place. Figures published on the official Real Madrid website showed Isco received a bruising welcome to life at the Santiago Bernabeu, being fouled 10 times alone in the first match the season against Real Betis.

Since then, the most fouls made on him during a game was on matchday six, when he was on the receiving end of four fouls.

Isco signed for the nine-time European Cup winners in a 30 million euro deal following an outstanding year on the south coast of Spain in which he helped Malaga to the quarter finals of the Champions League. After winning the Under 21 European Championship with Spain, he carried on his good domestic form with Los Blancos, and has scored four goals to date.

The other midfielders to feature in the list of those most fouled in La Liga so far include Rafinha (Celta de Vigo) with 22, Eva Banega (Valencia) with 20 and Buonanotte (Granada) and Sisi (Osasuna) with 19.

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