Benitez hints Navas will be No. 1

Real Madrid coach Rafa Benitez has suggested he sees Keylor Navas as his first-choice goalkeeper next season.

Madrid, whose legendary goalkeeper Iker Casillas left earlier in the summer, have been regularly linked with a move for Manchester United’s David De Gea.

Keeper Kiko Casilla moved to the Bernabeu, where he began his career, from Espanyol earlier this summer.

But Benitez, speaking after his side’s 4-1 International Champions Cup win over Manchester City in Melbourne on Friday, indicated that Navas was at the forefront of his plans.

Costa Rica international Navas moved to the Bernabeu from Levante last summer, and the coach was asked whether he saw him as a first choice.

He told reporters: “I think so, yes. We wanted to give him the chance to play and prove himself, and he has done well.

“I only need one goalkeeper in each match and, as long as I have one, I’m happy.”

Asked about De Gea, he said: “I don’t know. He is not here and I don’t know.

“I don’t speak to [Manchester United manager Louis] Van Gaal every day.”

Benitez also said he was confident that captain Sergio Ramos — a United target — and striker Karim Benzema, who has been linked with Arsenal, would stay.

Madrid have consistently rebuffed suggestions that star players could be leaving the Bernabeu.

But Ramos, asked by reporters in the mixed zone following the match when he planned to speak about his future, said only: “Now there is less time.”

Information from Press Association was used in this report.

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