Archive for May 27th, 2008

Manchester United has threatened to report Real Madrid to FIFA over the Spanish club’s public and blatant attempts to lure Cristiano Ronaldo away from Old Trafford.

Real Madrid have admitted that they want to buy the United winger, whose 42 goals for the Old Trafford club this season helped United win the Premier League and Champions League trophies.

Although Ronaldo is only 13 months into a five-year deal, Madrid is reported as saying it is willing to pay a world-record transfer of about 60 million pounds (US$118.8 million; €75.6 million) for United’s wide man.

Tired of seeing headlines on a daily basis about Ronaldo’s future, United issued a statement on Tuesday threatening to take action against the Spanish club.

“Manchester United has watched with growing irritation the comments attributed to Real Madrid over their alleged desire to sign Cristiano Ronaldo,” the club said on its Web site. “The facts are: the player is on a long-term contract and his registration is held by Manchester United. The player is not for sale. The club will have no alternative but to report Real Madrid to the world governing body, FIFA, if it continues to behave in this totally unacceptable fashion. These public attempts to unsettle the player are completely against the regulations and the club will not tolerate them any longer.”

United said Madrid’s attempts to buy Ronaldo are also a distraction for the Portuguese national squad as it prepares for next month’s European Championship.

“No one should be in any doubt that Manchester United will do everything in its power to keep its best players,” the club said.

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Sir Alex Ferguson’s feelings regarding ’moral-less’ Real Madrid is no doubt going to slip to new debths, as coach Bernd Schuster confirmed to the world that Cristiano Ronaldo is his club’s number one summer transfer target.

Ferguson has already voiced his dislike of Madrid open courting for Cristiano Ronaldo and is expected to be livid by Schuster speaking about the 23-year-old Manchester United winger in a manner that would suggest the signing has been signed, sealed and delivered.

“There are other players we have been looking at but everything has slowed down a little due to all this Cristiano Ronaldo business, seeing as he is the big priority for the club,” said Schuster.

He added: “The English way has been a perfect education for a player with such exceptional individual talent.

“There he has learned to enjoy his football as a complete professional. This means we would get a Cristiano who would arrive here with his lessons learned.”

For his part, the United boss is adamant Ronaldo neither wants to, nor will be, leaving Old Trafford this summer, claiming last week the acid test of the relationship between player and club will not be faced for another two years. Ronaldo is, of course only in the second year of a 5 years Old Trafford deal.

And while Ferguson understands the clear value to him of the 42-goal Ronaldo in his squad, he also spoke of the neccesity to keep strengthening and mentioned his interest in one of United’s high-profile rivals.

“Cristiano would help us in a lot of ways, without a doubt, but we can’t stop with just him,” he explained. “He’ll be expensive and we’ll have to pay a lot of money, but we need more players because he won’t be enough.

“For a few months now we have had a plan and we know what we want, but now Alexander Hleb has been added to that plan. We didn’t know he would be able to leave Arsenal, but now it seems he will.”

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