Atletico Madrid have made the first move to sign Monaco ace Thomas Lemar but their €60m (£53m) bid has been rejected by the French giants, claims Gianluca Di Marzio.
Arsenal and Liverpool have been heavily linked with a move for Lemar in the past 12 months and the France international even turned down the Gunners last summer.
Both Premier League clubs have somewhat cooled their interest since then after Lemar endured a fairly miserable season for Monaco, but he is still expected to leave this summer.
Atletico have been monitoring the situation in the background but have been told their opening offer of €60m will not be good enough to sign the talented 22-year-old.
Monaco allow their best players to leave at the right place and their Spanish counterparts will have to shatter their club transfer record in order to land Lemar, with the Principality club demanding €80m (£70.6m).
Despite an indifferent campaign, Lemar still registered the most assists for Monaco in Ligue 1 last season (8). Since August 2016, only Thomas Mangani (70) has created more goalscoring opportunities from set pieces than Lemar (59) in Ligue 1.
