Ronaldo Nears Record Move to
Madrid
Cristiano
Ronaldo, world soccer’s
Player of the Year, was sold by Manchester United to Real Madrid
for a world record 80 million pounds ($131 million) as the Spanish
team mounts a challenge to archrival Barcelona.
United said it accepted the unconditional offer
for the Portuguese star. The move should be completed by the end of
June.
The 24-year-old Ronaldo’s transfer would break the record fee
that Real Madrid President Florentino
Perez paid in his previous
term when he signed Zinedine
Zidane for 75.1 million euros
($105 million) in 2001. Two days ago, Perez completed the signing
of Kaka from AC Milan for what media reports said
was 68 million euros as he began his quest to rebuild a team
overshadowed by archrival Barcelona last season.
Real Madrid confirmed it made an offer to buy Ronaldo and said
it hoped to reach an agreement with the player “in the coming
days.” It didn’t give any financial figures. He was named as the
world’s best player in 2008 in a poll of national team coaches and
captains by governing body FIFA.
Madrid spokesman Luis Villarejo wasn’t available to comment on a
public holiday.
Ballon
d’Or
Perez is set to break the record transfer fee for a Portuguese
forward who scored 42 goals to lift Manchester United to the 2008
Champions League and Premier League titles. He added another 26
goals last season as United retained the English title and reached
the Champions League final. He’s scored 118 times in more than 290 appearances for
United.
Ronaldo, who also won the 2008 Ballon d’Or, moved to United from
Sporting Lisbon for 12.2 million pounds in 2003. He has been quoted
as saying he would like to join Real Madrid in reports over the
past two seasons.
Perez signed Kaka -- the 2007 World Player of the Year -- eight
days after starting his second term as president. He had told
Spanish media he would also like to sign other players including Ronaldo.
The record nine-time European
champion agreed to pay Milan the then second-highest fee for Brazil
playmaker Kaka, according to media reports. Neither Madrid nor
Milan disclosed financial terms of 27-year-old Kaka’s six-year
contract.
Ronaldo will get almost 10 million
euros a season for six years, according to Spain’s
El Mundo newspaper.
$175 Million Boost
Between 2000 and 2006, Perez oversaw the signings of
David Beckham, Zidane and other big names known as
“galacticos,” who drove marketing income and turned the team into
the biggest in the world by sales, according to Deloitte LLP, even
as it failed to win a trophy in three straight seasons.
The signings of Kaka and Ronaldo
may bring in about $175 million a year from the sale of replica
shirts and merchandise, sponsorship revenue and increased ticket
sales, according to Simon
Chadwick, a professor of sport
business strategy and marketing at England’s Coventry
University. The research was done for Weber Shandwick Sport,
a London-based sports marketing consultant.
Second Stint
Real Madrid suggested Beckham’s stay at the Santiago Bernabeu
brought in $600 million in sales of shirts and other goods alone,
increasing merchandising profits by 137 percent over four seasons
between 2003-04 and 2006-07 before his departure to the Los Angeles
Galaxy, according to Forbes magazine.
Barcelona won last season’s Champions League, Spanish title and
Spanish Cup. Real Madrid has failed to reach the quarterfinals of
the Champions League in each of the past five seasons. Perez
appointed Villarreal’s
Manuel Pellegrini as coach on June 2.
Perez, the 62-year-old president
of Spain’s biggest builder Actividades de Construccion y
Servicios SA, became Real Madrid president for a
second time June 1 after no other candidates could raise the
required 57 million-euro guarantee to run. In 2006, he quit after
the team failed to win a trophy for a third straight season, its
longest barren spell in more than half a century.
During Perez’s first term, the team won the 2002 Champions
League final with a volleyed goal by Zidane against Bayer
Leverkusen. Perez hired Zidane, who quit playing in 2006, as an
adviser last week.
In Debt
Real Madrid bankrolled player trades by selling the club’s
training ground for 500 million euros in 2001. Last month, Perez
said Real Madrid would need to borrow money to finance its
purchases this time. Madrid had debt of 563 million euros in June
2008, according to its latest published accounts. It had sales of
365.8 million euros for fiscal 2008.
