Real focus on Brazil back Thiago Silva – report

Spanish giants Real Madrid have turned their attention towards signing Brazilian Thiago Silva as coach Jose Mourinho hunts down a world class centre back, according to sports daily Marca on Sunday.

However, it appears that their interest in signing his Brazilian teammate Maicon from Mourinho’s old club Inter Milan has cooled because of the money being demanded by the European champions.

Inter would have lowered their price for Maicon, the only Brazilian to make the World Cup All-Star team, from 35 to 30 million euros, according to the report. However, Real are not prepared to pay more than 28 million euros and now consider Silva a good alternative.

The 25-year-old Silva, who arrived at Milan in 2009 from Fluminese, is under contract until 2013 and has a price tag of around 15 million euros.

He has been capped seven times by Brazil but, even though a member of the squad, he did not feature in a game at the World Cup in South Africa.