SPORT: Football
Antonio Rudiger wants to talk to the new Manchester United manager for a free transfer.

Chelsea star Anto­nio Rudi­ger would only con­sid­er a move to Man­ches­ter Unit­ed if he spoke to the new per­ma­nent man­ag­er first, reports suggest.

Rudi­ger’s con­tract with the Blues runs out in June and it seems high­ly unlike­ly he will renew amid the club’s finan­cial woes after Roman Abramovich was hit with sanctions.

Accord­ing to Bild’s Chris­t­ian Falk, the cen­tre-back won’t make any deci­sions regard­ing his future before the Cham­pi­ons League quar­ter-final match­es against Real Madrid.

Real are also inter­est­ed in the 29-year-old star, but a return to the Bun­desli­ga appears unlike­ly as Bay­ern believe he is too old for the wages he’s demanding.

Unit­ed are look­ing to bol­ster their defence but they would have to find a new man­ag­er first if they wish to sign the Ger­many international.

Falk tweet­ed: “[Rudi­ger] will make no deci­sion before the Match­es against ⁦[Real Madrid] about his future.

“He hopes on the one hand that the dif­fi­cult sit­u­a­tion at ⁦[Chelsea]⁩ will be cleared up. On the oth­er hand: Real is also still interested.”

He added: “A deci­sion about a future of [Rudi­ger] at [Unit­ed] is dif­fi­cult. Rudi­ger would like to Talk with the new Coach before…”

And he post­ed: “NOT TRUE that [Bay­ern] is still inter­est­ed in [Rudi­ger].

“The boss­es think he is too old for such an invest­ment. For a trans­fer he would have to low­er his wage demands.”

As it stands, Ajax man­ag­er Erik ten Hag is the favourite to replace Ole Gun­nar Sol­sk­jaer in the dugout when Ralf Rang­nick moves up to a con­sul­tan­cy role.

Ten Hag is among Unit­ed’s top tar­gets along with Paris Saint-Ger­main boss Mauri­cio Pochettino.

Chelsea head coach Thomas Tuchel has also been tout­ed after Abramovich’s assets were frozen due to Rus­si­a’s unjust inva­sion of Ukraine and his alleged ties with pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin.