Barcelona’s Ter Stegen believes Real are just fine without Ronaldo

“I think they have an amazing team, like every year, just like us,” he said. ”It’ll be equally difficult to play against them with or without Ronaldo.

”You have to understand that this is a player who made the difference in a lot of games, but we focus ourselves on our game and we know that, if we’re confident, we have the chance to do it all.”

Ramos returns to training, while Bale picks up training injury

Sergio Ramos returned to training this morning before their match against Juventus on Saturday. According to ESPN sources, Gareth Bale sustained a “slight injury” in this training session and sat out the remainder of it. Emphasis on slight, there’s no need to panic...yet.

Lopetegui deletes social media accounts

Not necessarily big news, but for those wanting to follow the new Madrid manager on social media, you can no longer. Lopetegui supposedly deleted his Instagram and Twitter accounts after receiving backlash for retweeting a post criticizing reporters who asked continuous Ronaldo questions.

Modric linked with Inter Milan

According to Sky Sports Italy’s Gianluca Di Marzio and La Gazzetta, Serie A side Internazionale is interested in signing Luka Modric. After already losing Ronaldo, it would kill Real to lose Luka in addition.

Luka does want a new and final career contract, though. Inter was linked with Bayern’s Arturo Vidal who would’ve been be the likely alternative to Modric, but Barcelona is reportedly is close to signing him.

Florentino Perez has since put the rumors to rest, according to MARCA, saying “the only possibility that Modric leaves is by paying 750 million euros.” This would appear that Modric is going nowhere this summer.

Asensio under fire for “mocking” Liverpool’s Karius

A video from ASTV came out showing Marco Asensio and Lucas Vasquez mock David De Gea by calling him “Karius” after a World Cup match.

This has now led to Asensio getting blasted on social media by fans for being disrespectful about another player behind his back. This is great news for Sergio Ramos, however.

Salah reportedly turned down Real transfer after Ronaldo’s departure

According to a recent piece from El Pais, Lopetegui approached Salah’s agents shortly after Ronaldo’s transfer. Salah then turned down Real and Lopetegui’s offer and elected to stay at Liverpool. He has since signed a new contract lasting until 2023.

Like the Modric rumors, there’s no great reason to outright believe this happened, especially when no formal offer was even made, though it is an interesting turn of events.

Lopetegui declines speaking about Courtois rumors, backs current keepers

When asked about Thibaut Courtois and the current keeper staff after the United friendly:

“At no time am I going to talk about players who are not at Real Madrid,” he said of Courtois following Madrid’s International Champions Cup defeat to Manchester United.

“I am thrilled with the goalkeepers that I have and I will not talk about players who are not part of this team.”

Alvaro Odriozola believes Ronaldo will be replaced

Even though he’s only been at Real Madrid for around a month, Odriozola already has a good feeling for what the Madrid front office will do in the future. When asked about the current squad and the Ronaldo situation:

“I start looking at the squad and [remember] this team won the Champions League two months ago,”

”For me, this is the best in the world. But I’m sure we’re going to replace Cristiano.”