Zinedine Zidane, the Real Madrid legend, has admitted that the European champions are monitoring Raheem Sterling’s contract situation at Liverpool.

Zidane, who is currently in charge of Real’s Castilla B-Team, admitted that the England forward is one of several young players from around Europe under consideration for a future transfer.

“We know who Raheem Sterling is, and of course we are monitoring him as a player,” he said.

“There are very few players in the world who can improve the Real Madrid squad, so it is going to make sense we monitor the progress of the best young players in the world. We monitored [Gareth] Bale for over a year, the same with Isco and also [Raphaël] Varane.

“We monitor many of the best young players in Europe, then if we feel they have something to offer Real Madrid we will contact their club and try and make the next step.”

Sterling has so far refused to commit his future to Liverpool despite being offered a new £100,000-a-week contract an gave a 27-minute interview with the BBC last week when he insisted he is not ‘a money-grabbing 20-year-old’.