Cristiano Ronaldo for 40 million pounds?
Published 2/16/2007 3:59:13 PM by Shane Barrow from Dallas, Texas
The Portuguese winger has become the hottest property in European football with Spanish giants Real Madrid and Barcelona both reportedly preparing huge end-of-season offers for the 21-year-old, who is under contract with United until 2010. Both offers are expected to be upwards of 40 million pounds and could induce a bidding war between the two powerhouses for his services.
Ronaldo has been all everything this year leading Manchester United to the top of the English Premier League and into the knockout stages of the Champions League, which resumes next week. He is far and away the most creative and dangerous player in the EPL if not the world currently.
Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson has said he was "very confident" that American owners, the Glazer family, would not be tempted to accept the offer for Cristiano Ronaldo. "I am very confident that we will keep Ronaldo", he said. "The Glazers are the owners and we would obviously have to refer the offer to them, but they have been fantastic so far."
If Ronaldo were to move to Spain for the kind of figure that has been touted, he would become the second most expensive player in football history, after Zinedine Zidane, who moved to Real from Juventus in 2001 for 46 million pounds. However if a bidding war were to break out the 46 million Zidane standard could easily be broken.
|