At the price of £80m http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=654097&sec=transfers&cc=4716 [rQUOTEr]Manchester United have accepted an offer from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo. A statement on the United website confirmed that a deal for the 24-year-old should be completed by the end of the month. ''Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid. ''At Cristiano's request - who has again expressed his desire to leave - and after discussion with the player's representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player. ''Matters are expected to be concluded by 30 June. The club will not comment until further notice.'' Ronaldo has long been a target for the Spanish giants, whose president Florentino Perez vowed earlier this week to do ''everything possible'' to take the 24-year-old to the Bernabeu.[/rQUOTEr] Great deal, not much a loss from Man U IMO.
$131 million... United will have plenty of money to sign Ribery and others. and now Messi vs Ronaldo can get more intense.
Don't forget that: The news comes just days after Real clinched the 56 million pounds transfer of Brazilian playmaker Kaka from Italian side AC Milan as they look to compete with arch-rivals Barcelona on the domestic front and such as Manchester United and Chelsea in the Champions League. I believe 56 million GBP is somewhere around US $90-100 million? They are also going to sign David Villa probably from Valencia for around $40m. This is before Chelsea, Man City and Portsmouth have entered the market. I hope that Tevez is snatched away. Ribery has already said he won't play in England. I think he'll end up in Barca.
This gives Real Madrid sole possession of the 4 highest transfers in club football history, 2 of them coming within the last week: 1 Cristiano Ronaldo £80 2 Kaká £56.1 3 Zinédine Zidane £46.0 4 Luís Figo £37.0 Props to Man U for picking him up relatively cheap as an 18 year old and selling him off during his peak (although he requested the transfer). Time for Arsenal to make some big moves this summer!
Holy holly holy! Kaka+Ronaldo! And Real Madrid stated that they aren't done spending. They are now looking at bringing in either Villa or Ibraimovic and are going to enter the bidding war for Ribery aswell. Next year will be a naaaasty duel between Barça and Real. Can't wait!
Arsenal bought my homeboy Vermeulen! And even though he might be such an impact player, I know the Gunners are looking at Dembele and Defour who are both beasts!
Always knew he was going to leave.. gonna be interesting to see what Man U actually does with that money.
As a United supporter I'm not thrilled, but in SAF we trust. Just don't know who we could pickup if Ribery doesn't wanna come party with Evra in the lovely Manc weather. As for Madrid, this whole bit of business since Perez returned is disgusting to me. Back to making his team a FIFA or Pro Evo all star team. Only thing is instead of loading up on the star attacking players as he did in last spell, it might have been smart to start with fixing the crap backline that they had last season. Plus they better hope both Diarra's play as well as they did in the midfield last season or else Madrid won't be winning any tackles and giving up goals like a sieve. Hate Madrid. They are the true equivalent to the NY Yankees or Cowboys and not Man.United.
I'm also awaiting the outcry from EPL Hater Monsieur Platini on how this is hurting the beautiful game. Wanker.
I'm happy and disappointed at the same time. I hoped Ronaldo would stay with the Reds. But, if he's going to go, $100 million+ isn't a bad consolation prize. ManU always finds the talent to stay on top. Chelsea, Liverpool, and Arsenal fans might be happy now, but Sir Alex won't allow them to stay that way.
Wow, this'll be fun to watch. That's for sure. Don't you just wish American teams could go out and sign young international superstars? Sadly we haven't had anything to peak our attention since the last round of international signings with over the hill Beckham as the culmination. Imagine the interest in the MLS if they just got one Ronaldo, Kaka, Ronaldinho, Messi, Rooney, some big name. The Beckham experiment was profitable too for the league I think, didnt they have some of their highest ratings and attendence this past year?
I really hope Real will get rid of some of the Dutch players they have, so that they can actually get some playing time, I mean I think Robben, van der Vaart and sneijder and Huntelaar are great players, but Kaka and Ronaldo might be a bit better. And if Real get rid of the dutch players I can finally enjoy it when they lose.
Only 30 games, only 5 goals. Only profit was made by Adidas and attendance for stadium... it did NOTHING for MLS. All the young talent is snatched up by European clubs . No way players of this caliber would play in the U.S. league. Sad stuff.
Yeah they hate spending they rather find young unknown dudes. Only "blockbuster" trade they've made in a long time was for Arshavin...
Ribery, when asked if he would rather go to the UK or to Spain:"Well, the weather in UK is like the weather in Germany, and I don't like the weather in Germany..." Imagine the mofokIN paycheck that Kaka and Ronaldo just got. dayym and I can't manage to pay college! I knew I should have tried out for soccer at school!
