Chelsea have confirmed that they have made an official offer to Real Madrid for their thumb sucking Brazilian, also known as Robinho. The Blues made the announcement on their website and the offer is believed to be in the £20million range. The thought of him flying up and down the field has got to be a scary thought for the rest of the Premiership.
Sir Alex is saying the Cristiano Ronaldo to Real Madrid saga is all over, but Spanish paper Marca is reporting that Ronaldo is not going to report to Manchester at the end of the week as he is required to do.
Remember when I was just saying?
This is so far from being over in my opinion, especially when Madrid is saying that van der Vaart is their last and only major signing of the summer.
image via Starpulse
And they also acquire his wife WAG Sylvie in the same deal. Bet we won’t hear her complaining about leaving Germany for Madrid.
DOUBLE UPDATE - Done deal as Real Madrid are set to announce van der Vaart Tuesday morning.
UPDATE - If Real Madrid President Ramon Calderon has his way, van der Vaart will be presented to the Galactico faithful by next week.
It’s believed that Madrid upped it’s original offer to the 10 Million Euro mark and with the teams set to meet in the Emirates Pre-Season Tournament this weekend, Bernd Schuster might very well get his man.
When a player either is within the last six months of his contract OR has a clause in his contract that stipulates that he can move to any club in the world he so chooses for only 1 Million Euro in 12 months, as the Chairman when do you pull the trigger and take as much as you can get?
Dutchman Rafael van der Vaart scored 21 goals in 44 matches last season while leading Hamburg SV to 4th place in the 2007/08 Bundesliga and reaching the round of 16 in the UEFA Cup competition as the teams Captain.
Real Madrid’s push for Rafael van der Vaart might have just gotten a bit more important as their influential Dutch midfielder Wesley Sneijder went down just past the hour mark at Emirates Stadium. Adebayor scored the games only goal as Arsenal won 1-nil.
After a tough tackle by Arsenal’s Abou Diaby during the Emirates Cup pre-season friendlies tournament, Sneijder was in immediate pain and the worst, torn knee ligaments is feared.
With so much speculation surrounding Ronaldo and whether or not Manchester United will sell him or not, reports are now saying that Real Madrid have gone directly to the Glazer family and that the Glazers are interested in selling. With so much money on the table, a reported $140 million price tag for Ronaldo, it would actually be difficult not to sell him. As I have said before, I think it is a slippery slope when money like this is involved, but as owners of a team, you can’t blame them if they do consider selling. It is also reported that Real Madrid has debts over $600 million, so you can bet they are going to try and get the price down.
Where do you think CRon7 will be playing this upcoming season?
Ever since Manchester United won the champions League in Moscow, there has been crazy speculation as to whether or not Ronaldo wqould leave the Red Devils for Real Madrid. The spectacle surrounding this saga has picked up speed since Portugal was bounced from Euro 2008 with CRon saying he would like to head to Madrid, but that he doesn’t have any control over what Manchester United choose to do.
This whole Ronaldo situation seems like it could be one of those very important decisions that has some pretty big implications in the future of soccer at the highest levels. Not only would the reported €100m transfer fee change the game, but how clubs deal with players under contract, and how these players fuel the fire of when they want to be sold leaves FIFA with some big issues to address. I know there have been players that were heavily coveted by teams, and that these teams did what they could to unsettle the players and try to pry them away from their teams. But I think there is so much attention on the three parties involved, and there is so much money at stake, that the way in which this all is dealt with can have long lasting implications. My guess is it will probably get ugly before it gets resolved, and somebody is definitely going to walk away pissed and feeling like they got screwed. I guess the big question is who will emerge as the big winner in all of this?
TRIPLE UPDATE - FIFA has officially confirmed that they will not punish Real Madrid over Manchester United’s complaint of “tapping up” Cristiano Ronaldo.
“From the documentation received, no breach of contract appears to have occurred yet,” FIFA said in a statement.
“Therefore, in accordance with the applicable practice, no kind of formal procedure has been opened by FIFA regarding this matter.”
DOUBLE UPDATE - Poor Cristiano..
Not only has he been photographed with Real Madrid Fitness Coach Walter Di Salvo in Rome, but it doesn’t look good for his current club Manchester United’s desire to have FIFA punish Real Madrid for unsettling the Portuguese winger.
With the announcement of Scolari going to Chelsea in the middle of the 2008 Euros, you’ve got to think there will be more news coming out of the Portugal camp as the tournament progresses.
UPDATE - Now it’s looking like Ramom Calderon will fight this charge to the death after insisting that Manchester United have no evidence that Real Madrid have acted inappropriately in their pursuit of Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
Doesn’t it always seem like Madrid’s “unsettling” a player through their “admiration” of players?
It’s starting…. But it looks like Manchester United isn’t going to lose Cristiano Ronaldo without a fight.
You’ve got to think with Ronaldo’s refusal to publicly display his loyalty to Sir Alex and Man Utd that his intentions (don’t forget about Nereida Gallardo) are to become the latest Galactico.
My question is if Cristiano is allowed to make this move to Madrid, will he get his image rights in the deal? You know that Madrid will make their money back in jersey sales and marketing alone, but how much are they willing to drop up front?
If Ronaldo does declare his intentions to head to Spain, then you’d think that maybe it’d be worth the sale in terms of the amount of money you’d have coming in, but where do you spend it?
I’d go for Benzema, Ribery and Henry just to name a few.
Ronaldo and Portugal take on Czech Republic on Wednesday in their 2nd match of Group A.
UPDATE - Looks like a transfer to Real Madrid isn’t the only reason Cristiano wants to move to Spain.
ESPN is reporting the same, pulling from Terra.
I’m very surprised that both are running with this article, only because these alleged comments didn’t come at an official press conference and Ronaldo has been very quiet around the press lately, refusing to do any media until after the 2008 Euros.
If this is true, then it will be extremely interesting to see how Sir Alex, David Gill and the Glazer family handle it.
image via Martin23
Predrag Mijatovic has not taken the role of Director of Sports lightly. Quite the opposite.
The former Real Madrid hit man was the type of player that never back down to anyone.
After hooking up with Real President Ramon Calderon during his bid for the top spot, Calderon rewarded Pedja with the role he’s done so well with now.
Now Mijatovic has publicly opened up about where he feels the club is at, and where Barcelona isn’t.
What do you think? Confidence or Cockiness?
Maybe both?
image via Cache
