Florentino Perez loves to take a risk on promising young players and following the signing of Vinicius Junior it appears that Real have their finger on the pulse of the Brazilian market. Lucas Fernandes is the latest name to be linked with the Spanish giants.
Fernandes was considered to be one of the most promising young midfielders in Brazilian football until his progress was halted by injury. Having won the U20 Copa Libertadores, the Brazilian is on the way back to his best and as a result, his name is starting to be mentioned in Europe once again.
Real Madrid are among the teams interested and are believed to have already contacted one of their Brazil-based scouts, the same one who discovered Casemiro in fact, to ask about Lucas.
At the age of 19, he started to break into the Sao Paulo team two years ago and has 40 senior games under his belt, though it would have been more but for the injury that kept him out of contention for some time.
But now it appears he's back to stay. He has played nine games on the bounce and scored in his last outing against Gremio.
Perez is already putting feelers out to determine a potential fee etc, bearing in mind that the player's contract expires at the end of 2018.
For now though, he is definitely seen more as 'one for the future' than an immediate first team option and could join the club alongside Vinivius Junior ahead of the 2018/19 season.