Manchester United accept £80m Ronaldo bid from Real Madrid
Cristiano Ronaldo eager to move to Madrid
Manchester United have accepted a world record transfer bid of £80m from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo.
The decision was taken after Cristiano Ronaldo again requested the move and after discussion with Jorge Mendes, the player’s agent. With Real Madrid making an unconditional offer of £80m (it remains to be seen if this will amount will be paid all upfront through the bank loan Real Madrid have secured to fund the Ronaldo transfer or it will be paid in stages), Manchester United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the World Player of the Year.
United expect the transfer to be concluded by 30 June. Unlike last summer when Ronaldo made a public statement and United were forced to respond to it in public as well, this year has seen the two parties come to an agreement privately.
World Record Transfer Fee
The 80m transfer fee for Ronaldo means that Real Madrid have smashed the world record in transfer fees twice in the space of a week, with Kaka signing for a reported £56m from AC Milan earlier this month. The previous world record fee was £45.6m Real paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001. The move also eclipses the Manchester United and English Premier League transfer records (£30m for Berbatov and £32 million for Robinho, both deals going through on the last day of last year’s summer transfer window.
Manchester United to move for Ribery?
Ronaldo’s departure could have a direct impact on another winger’s future, with Manchester United having talked to Bayern Munich last month about bringing in Frank Ribery in case Ronaldo was to depart to Madrid. United’s interest is now expected to intensify, although they will face competition from Chelsea and Barcelona. This time though, they can at least call upon a significant amount of the 80m transfer fee and could easily outspend their two rivals.
Apart from Cristiano Ronaldo there’s also the case of Carlos Tevez, who has seemingly made up his mind to leave Manchester United despite a late intervention by Alex Ferguson himself in a direct phone call to the player. Tevez’s first priority to stay in England, with Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool all reported to have shown interest in the forward.
Tevez set to leave Manchester United
Manchester United still have the option of first refusal on Carlos Tevez, although once their loan deal expires on 30th June Tevez will be a free agent and United will then be faced with the prospects of replacing two world class players. Manchester United have been linked with Benzema as a potential replacement for Tevez and if they can bring in Franck Ribery and Karim Benzema as replacements, the fans will be more than happy with the summer transfer window.
Now if only some one could fix Owen Hargreaves…
£80 mmillion is good business. As long as they don’t use any to pay off the debt but give it all to transfer fees, I’m happy.
In terms of players, Ribery, Benzema, Tevez and if enough, Messi (we wish!) then yes. This would please the fans. One player to fund three world class players is extremely good.
Players out though, I’d like to see Nani, Manucho and Berbatov (if this would help to fund a Messi move, great!).
All in all, I can see this having a good effect on the team in general. Hopefully any new signings are done quickly and without fuss so that they can get bedded in to the current team pre-season.
Question: where did Real Madrid get all those money? are they living in another planet? cuz economic times are pretty bad
No United fan me but they are well rid of him. As they say in Liverpool he’s a big TART !
I am with hamburg. Where the hell are they going to get the money? I heard it is a 300 pound warchest. They do plan to sell 9 players though, but with that they do have to buy a few more and going by Perez’s words, they want to buy big meaning they would nhave to print money. Let them be, the 80mil if it materialises should be used to buy prudently
u put 100b for messi..
barcelona will not sell him..
bye bye ronaldo,thanks for the 42 goals but your more trouble to the overall team so i dont think any united fan will miss you
Aiden McGeady could be a good replacement I think.
I think its good business. You can now afford Ribery, a world class striker and significantly improve your centre midfield, which will leave you stronger than you were last year.
Well I’ve made my views on Ronaldo clear many times here. He’s an egocentric, narcissistic, vain prima donna.
I was all in favour of off-loading him last season. 80m is great business…and then some.
But there are a few myths about that need to be dispelled.
Firstly, while Ronaldo’s contribution on the pitch has been significant in the past 2 seasons, some people seem to suggest that Utd are a 1 man team. The fact is that Utd have become totally Ronaldo centric. Rooney’s game has suffered and the much criticised Berbatov and Tevez have also paid the price (BOTH left out on some occassions to facilitate Ronaldo playing up front.) Without him Utd will become a genuine TEAM again.
Secondly, Sir Alex would not sanction this without having a clear plan in terms of replacements. He knows his time at the helm is limited and will not be planning to go out with a whimper.
Thirdly, suggestions that this is a move driven by the debt is rubbish. The debt is being managed thru the club profits and the Glazers have shown that they understand that the busibess model is dependent on success on the pitch. Money for players has always been available since they came.
Expect some combination of Ribery, Benzema, Valentia, Villa, Silva…possibly even the likes of Pirlo or De Rossi to come in.
Fergie has a plan and I look forward to Utd being a REAL team again, without that sulking pratt spoiling my viewing time.
If ever anyone deserved to fail it’s him and I look forward to him throwing a hissy fit as Real are dumped out of the CL by an EPL team next season.
De Rossi over Pirlo, but he won’t come.
Ahmed: Pirlo and De Rossi wont solve the winger problem, unless Nani and Park are to up their game 100 fold!
Bayern doesnt want to sell Ribery, so who’s coming? David Silva?
If I were Fergie I’d do the following (but I’m not and he won’t!
):
Sell Nani (8M), Berbatov (18m), Simpson (4M) and Manucho (4M). With the 6M already received for Campbell and the 80M from Ronaldo that’s a total of 120M. I’d also let Tevez go.
Bring in: Benzema 30M, Ribery 40M, Valencia 10M,and either Pirlo or De Rossi (25M). That still leaves a 15M profit.
Ronaldo wouldn’t be missed for a second!
@Hamburg: Ahmed was only commenting on my suggestion of those 2 midfielders. Of course they won’t solve the wide replacement issue…but try and keep up.
As for: “Bayern doesnt want to sell Ribery, so who’s coming?”
My grandmother didn’t want to marry my grandfather but guess what…here I am! Evrything’s on when the big money is involved. (not sure how much my grandfather had to pay in the end!
)
pirlo for 25 million, wow, u sure have bad ecnomic skills, de rossi for 25 million, u are stupid, if me, then are only worh 10-15 million to de rossi and 2.5 million for pirlo or even 5 million.
OUT: RONALDO 80M
IN : RIBERY 45M, DAVID VILLA 45M
Sold out Ronaldo for 80mil is pretty a good deal for both club .
Fergie should use this 80mil to buy Forlan 18mil , Aguero 40mil(report that these deal happen soon) left 22mil n + 8mil to get his dream player and the player that he pursuit more years and year~Benzema !!
lets all be honest, the moment the news broke that Florentino Perez would once again be pulling all the transfer strings at Madrid, i myself knew it was only a matter of time that big names (and ego`s dare i say?) would bear the white of Mighty Madrid, and following the Ronaldo fiasco of the season just gone it was all but written in stone that he would be a member of a new era Galacticos
Lets be honest, we all knew this day would come sooner or later. We all would like to have believed that Ronaldo would be with us forever, but it was his dream to play for Real, and you cant knock him for that. He has been a brilliant player but not a brilliant servant of the club. As good as his performances were on the pitch, of it you always had a bad feeling his sights were somewhere else. He could have handled it all a little better, but maybe thats the flaw of the man who literally has everything. Ordinarily, i would have been gutted to see him leave, but after the champions league final, not so much anymore. Fergie practically changed the whole team for him. Giggs in the centre, rooney on the wing, and 60 million pounds worth of strikers on the bench. That dreadful performance in Rome was more on Fergie than Ronaldo, but now that he has gone i think Fergie will be forced to build a new team. As BD Condell said, im looking forward to seeing them play as a team again. That 80 million can go a long long way. Literally all the top players in the world are up for grabs right now (other than messi). Ibrahimovic, Etoo, Villa, Silva, Ribery, De Rossi. So with 80 million we are spoiled for choice. That doesnt mean all or even any of them will come, but atleast we can afford to spend some silly money if need be. We NEED one striker, one hard man in the center and a left winger. Tevez looks likely to go, and who can blame him? Nani and Park just cannot cut it week in and week out to be starters and how long can we fill lack of creativity and strength in midfield with aging Scholes and Giggs? We need someone in there to knock a few heads together. Chelsea have Essien and Ballack, Liverpool have Mascherano and Arsenal, haha they’re screwed! But how long can be wait around for Hargreaves to come on, forget come good? To Ronaldo, cest la vie, thanks for your services, a definite legend. Just hope Fergie splashes the cash on someone better than 16 million on Valencia.(Seriously what the fuck? 16 million?)
David Villa to united?, so he can warm the bench like Tevez did? besides isn’t there rumors going around that Madrid have approached Villa? and as Chelsea found out the hard way with Kaka, Madrid get what Madrid want
Does anyone think that Zoran Tosic will take over from where Ronaldo left off? I think he has huge potential to do so.
What’s more worrying would be the holding midfielder role cos as Ahmed Bilal said, without Owen Hargreaves, Europe cannot be conquered.
I think that Andrea Pirlo would be fantastic signing as the holding midfielder just to keep ball and spray it around. A bit old but a Seba Veron he is not!
BD Condell: got the point, well in that case, why could a debt-ridden Valencia hold on to Villa and David Silva for so long? lets see how they hold off Real.
Fire07: do you happen to be someone in the SL forum?
Well, if Sir Alex was caught off guard by this then he’s an idiot. He knew that Ronaldo wanted to leave last year, but he refused to sell. So now he’s had a year to form a contingency plan, so I’m sure that he’s got some replacements in line. Whether they be the oft-quoted “Ribery and Benzema” or someone else that we’re not really thinking of just yet, I’m sure he’ll figure out a way to replenish the ranks.
However, make no mistake about it, this is a huge loss. Ronaldo was not as brilliant this season as he was last season. His on-field tantrums were worse than anything we’ve seen in years and it seemed like he couldn’t wait to finish the year so he could get on with his “Dream Move.” But even in an “off” year for Ronaldo, he still led the team in goals. He was one goal away from winning the EPL Golden Shoe (or Boot or whatever footwear they’re naming it). His rocket against Porto secured their passage into the Champions League Semis. His end of season form, where he scored two against Villa, two against Tottenham, and two against Arsenal in the Champions League put them in a position to win their elusive Quadruple.
Plus, if you look at his stats over the last two years, there were many matches where he either scored the only Manchester United goal(s), the equalizer, or the go-ahead goal. Sure, maybe his departure means that Rooney and Berbatov can step up and play to their potential. But it doesn’t change the fact that there is now a huge void in the team. It will take all of SAF’s brilliance to figure out how to fill it.
as a manu fan i am very happy that manu decided to get rid of that baby crier i hate him he is very selfish and i would like it if on his first match of real his right leg, never fully recover lose most of his skill and like most ronaldos become fat and have weight limit problem. In real he will make a very good sub. Again ronaldo thank u for leaving and instead of that dumb shot you should have passed to park than maybe we could have won… (selfish)
man utd is f*cked they will get third this season maybe ribery never coming to england and bezema is not better than tevez… fergie should have retired after 2008 what a dumb old man for letting tevez go
Wow. 80 million. That’ll take care of United’s debt complet…oh wait.When you can sell a player for this much money and still be hundreds of millions of pounds in debt, you have a serious problem.
I don’t know about everyone else, but to me, Madrid are starting to reek of the New York Cosmos. I mean, times have changed since then but Kaka, Ronaldo and Robben’s egos aren’t all that different from Pele, Chinaglia and Beckenbauer’s. And we all know how the Cosmos experiment worked out: the entire league folded. Hmm. Juande Ramos certainly has his work cut out for him on the man-management front.
Villa won’t be coming as the deal with madrid is already in advanced stages . This is due to fact that they have already rejected a bid from chelsea.
And yes he will create a huge void in the united team just like cantona, keane, beckham, kanchellskis , created but they were filled. The main question that is in my mind is how to spend the money. I’d like ribery to come but not at the predicted 50 million price. I’d like to see aguero ,valencia and de rossi at united . Next year will be the test when we don’t have ronaldo with us but i believe we have the strength in the squad to cope with it. I think rooney and berba will be the key next season for United.
BELIEVE
AND ALSO RONALDO IS NOT A LEGEND AT OLD TRAFFORD.
This is absolutely insane. Real will make a mistake of neglecting its defenders while overpaying its strikers.
every day i wished for this to happen, and it has. no more ronaldo whimpering and conning the ref in the premier league, ahhhhh bliss.
@ Victor Li
I definitely agree with you that this will be a big lost to Man Utd if we can’t sign any great players to replace Ronaldo. Nevertheless, since I’m Man Utd fan, Ronaldo’s body language and the way he played for my team are very disrespectful. I mean, look at the end of the champion league game. Giggs said that we will come back to be stronger. Rooney praised to Iniestra was MVP of the game. Everyone admitted that they didn’t play the game the way CL final suppose to be. Ronaldo, on the other hand, said that the tatic was bad and he tried and he just want to go home. Tatic ?? He screwed up many shots that he supposed to score but he didn’t. I don’t care if he can score 60 goals in one season. If he is going to disrespect my team and doesn’t admit to be a team player then he isn’t Man Utd player. Come on, Ribery !! Come to Utd and we all can show that how Man Utd suppose to be done as a team and not as one man show like how Ronaldo did.
That’s a lot of money for running after a ball.
According to sky news only half of the transfer fee £80million will be availible for transfers. Listen to the news before you advice how the money will be spent.
@Chris Since the club has made no comments on the matter, Sky News are only speculating, just like the rest of us. There was money already available to the tune of 20m (earmarked for Tevez) and possibly more in case United really needed to bring a new player in (like a winger or a central midfielder).
Think for yourself before you start believing everything you read
You can have Benzema AND Ribery – it still won’t matter. You’re losing the best player in the world and nothing can change that!
Today is the day the other clubs in England saw blood in the water, and we are going to pounce next season!
havent we heard all this nonsense about us being greatly weakened before?losing a player that only cared about himself will do us no harm,especially since he is about to fetch us 80m.theres plenty of players that we can now bring in to make us better.im delighted this happened,only wish it had happened sooner
It is clear that Madrid is embarrassed after what Barca accomplished, I think they’re trying too hard to turn thingss around.
I believe they are literally bank rolled
The sale of Ronaldo will just unleash rooney’s full potential, now to try and keep hold of tevez…….
23. kamal~ as a manutd fanz u must not mention our club as “manu” if u know what are back of that..try to search bout that man..i’m from malaysia but i notice bout that..WE ARE UNTIED!!!
thanks 2 ur service ron..
For a mere 20m more, Madrid could have bought the entire Newcastle Utd club!!
With regards to transfers though, Ribery has said he doesn’t like the climate of England, Villa and Silva have both said they want to stay in Spain, and I seriously doubt Ferguson would buy back Diego Forlan. The worst suggestion of them all..Messi. As if. That will never happen.
How will Real Madrid be able to pay its giant wage bill witht he unemployment rate approaching 30% their matchday revenue will slide big time. They will ahve to sell a ton of Kaka and Ronaldo jerseys to compensate.
Brilliant that Ronaldo has gone, for the diver! He exhibited the worst kind of cheating in my book and luckily his reputation followed him and refs got wise to him.
As for his battle with Messi during the European final last month to find out which one of them was the best…well we had that answered didn’t we.
Be great watching the season without him CR on our screens.
Whenever a player, ANY player, shows a desire to play for another club it is time to let him go, whether he’s playing for Manchester United or Accrington Stanley.
United Ronaldo for £12.2m in 2003. 118 goals and 292 appearances later they sell him for £80m. That sounds like an outstanding return on their initial investment to me.
@Chris #32: A few people have mentioned this (kind of a dig at Utd fans…you won’t actually get all the money so you can’t spend it.)
So when Utd buy they MUST pay cash-up front…..is that your assumption?
A little jealous of Utd’s spending power right now are we?
@ Brian W: Funny that, all the time he was at Utd he actually WASN’T the best player in the world in your book. Now that he’s leaving, however, he suddenly is!!
has there been an opinion here coming from a true Real Madrid supporter even before their galactico eras? i want to read a Madridista’s angle here… too many United fans hahahaha
I love the decision of MAN-U to have given out C.Ronaldo due to profit making.Football is business.They can get even two or more good players that can do aperfect combination with the curent team
i think life is about opportunity,and when it comes,you make good use of it.if real madrid have as much to offer to christaino rolando to play with them,then i think its his luck.and more over its good for man.united club to sopport their club finacially,and if it good for the club then its good for rolando,and if it is good for rolando,its ok for real madrid so long as they can get him to play for them.like they say,realmadrid is a great club that will never accept defeat as an answer,so no matter the cost of re-building it should not be problem.its just a game.
i think your will be a good player in real madrid bravo ronaldo