Real Madrid are preparing to offer Manchester City £70million plus Gareth Bale to sign Raheem Sterling, according to reports.
Sterling has progressed to become one of the world's best players over the past few seasons, and Los Blancos have identified his as the man to get them firing again.
Bale, meanwhile, is largely out of favour under Zinedine Zidane at Real Madrid, and a player the club has been trying to get off their books for a few years now.
But Manchester City are unlikely to want to swap their 24-year-old winger for 30-year-old Bale, who has scored just twice in six La Liga appearances this season.
According to Sky Sports, Real Madrid are sending scouts to watch Sterling in action for England in their matches against Montenegro and Kosovo next month.
They will then iron out the final details of their proposal before putting it to Man City.
Real Madrid have been stop-start in the league so far this season, drawing four and losing one of their opening 11 fixtures.
Summer signing Eden Hazard is still settling in, and it seems that Real president Florentino Perez is keen to add some extra firepower in January.
Perez has previously expressed an interest in signing Sterling, who has himself admitted he would like to try his hand in Spain at some point.
But Sterling has three years left on the £280,000-a-week contract he signed a year ago at Man City and is unlikely to hand in a transfer request to push through a move.
