United accept £80m bid for Ronaldo
Manchester United accept £80 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid
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Thursday, 11, Jun 2009 10:16
Manchester United have accepted an £80 million offer for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid, the club have confirmed.
A statement on the club's official website said they had accepted the unconditional offer after the 24-year-old said he wanted to leave Old Trafford.
"Manchester United have received a world-record, unconditional offer of £80 million for Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid," the statement said.
"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 June 30th. The club will not comment until further notice."
World player of the year Ronaldo had been widely tipped to swap Manchester for the Spanish capital last summer, but he was convinced to stay by manager Sir Alex Ferguson.
However, following last month's Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, the Portuguese attacker has decided his future lies elsewhere.
If the transfer goes ahead it will smash the previous world record fees that Real paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001 and Kaka earlier this week.
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The £46 million fee paid for Zidane remains a record in euros, but the £56 million Real shelled out to AC Milan for Kaka was a new record in pound sterling.
The signing of Kaka and the expected transfer of Ronaldo signal the start of a second Galactico era at Real Madrid following the re-election of president Florentino Perez.
In his previous presidency he oversaw the signings of Zidane, Luis Figo and David Beckham, although the policy was eventually largely discredited.
Real's spending is not expected to stop with just Ronaldo and Kaka however, with Valencia's David Villa and Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery also in their sights after the club suffered the humiliation of watching archrivals Barcelona record a glorious treble in 2008/09.