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.
