June 30, 2008
Sir Alex Ferguson returns to work at Manchester United this morning after his holiday, convinced that he will triumph in the forthcoming battle of wills with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portugal winger is determined to engineer a move to Real Madrid, but Ferguson is vehemently opposed to selling and will spend this week examining ways to strengthen his squad.
The two men are not believed to have spoken since Ronaldo left Manchester to join the Portugal squad in late May, with the player doing nothing to dispel rumours of growing tension between him and his club manager.
But while Ferguson has been disappointed by some of Ronaldo’s comments, he does not want to sell the player and is convinced that Ronaldo will drop the issue when he learns of the extent of United’s opposition to the sale.
[Timesonline]
June 27, 2008
Ronaldo is putting the transfer saga behind him and having a beach holiday with his girlfriend Nereida Gallardo…
[Telegraph]
June 25, 2008
Carlos Queiroz, Manchester United’s Portuguese assistant manager, has reiterated the club’s desire to persuade Cristiano Ronaldo to change his mind about wanting to join Real Madrid.
“Manchester United is very special,” Queiroz told the Portuguese radio station Renascenca. “Because of that we know how to surround Cristiano completely with all the affection and all the attention he deserves. However, not speaking is the most sensible course of action at this moment, so that we don’t contribute to a less than positive spectacle and so we don’t aid those whose interests are difficult to identify.”
[Guardian]
June 23, 2008
France legend Zinedine Zidane believes Real Madrid will end up signing Manchester United’s Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Spanish giants have made no secret of their desire to sign the 23-year-old Portuguese winger, despite United’s insistence they will not sell.
“Every time Madrid want good players they get them,” said former Real star Zidane, in Vienna for Euro 2008.
Read the rest of this entry »
June 21, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo says he hopes to “complete his dream” of moving to Real Madrid, despite Manchester United insisting he is “not for sale”.
The European champions said on Friday: “We are not listening to offers.”
But the Portugal winger, 23, has signalled his intention to “take advantage of a great opportunity”.
“Everybody knows what I want but things don’t only depend on me,” he said. “I am not the person who decides but I hope to complete my dream.”
Ronaldo stated that he made up his mind before the Champions League final that he wanted to leave United for Real.
And he revealed that Luiz Felipe Scolari, about to take over at Chelsea after Portugal’s exit from Euro 2008, advised him to make the move.
“It is a dream, a step forward,” Ronaldo replied when asked about the prospect of playing at the Bernabau.
“For me, it is a great opportunity and, as Scolari says, that train passes by only once and we have to take advantage of it.”
[BBC]
June 18, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo has confided to friends that he is prepared to do “whatever it takes” to engineer a transfer to Real Madrid this summer. Manchester United maintain that they will not sell their most prized asset under any circumstances, but Ronaldo is dismissive of his club’s views and regards his planned world-record transfer to Real as an inevitability.
Ronaldo appeared almost ambivalent about his future when, in a statement on June 4, he suggested that he would be happy to stay at United if no fee was agreed with Real, but the depth of his determination to leave Old Trafford is now becoming clear.
A source close to the player said last night that he had made clear he would do everything in his power to persuade United to sell. That could mean anything from submitting a formal transfer request to refusing to report for pre-season training, but his next step will be to issue a further statement, outlining his intentions, as soon as Portugal’s participation in the European Championship finals is over.
[Timesonline]
June 16, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo thinks Manchester United will have a difficult task overcoming Chelsea next season with Luiz Felipe Scolari at the helm.
The Brazilian will take charge at Stamford Bridge after he has finished his duties with Portugal at Euro 2008.
And Ronaldo, who is under Scolari’s charge in Austria and Switzerland, is tipping his boss to have a big impact on the Premier League.
“Scolari gives his players the ambition to play attractive, attacking football. He is a great man, a great coach,” Ronaldo told The People.
“With him at Chelsea, it is going to be difficult for United.”
Ronaldo is fully behind Scolari’s decision to quit his role with Portugal.
“He needs to look after his future and I respect that. If you have better conditions, better things for his family and himself, I respect that he should go.”
[Skysports]
June 15, 2008
Cristiano Ronaldo’s personal terms for a move to Real Madrid were agreed ‘a long time ago’, according to a senior Manchester United source. Ronaldo’s agent Jorge Mendes is now understood to have finalised all the key details with executives from the Spanish club.
‘They have been talking for at least two months,’ the source told Observer Sport last night, ‘and it was all agreed with Real Madrid weeks ago. All this chat from [Real president] Ramón Calderón that he does not want to upset Manchester United, and Cristiano Ronaldo cannot be bought because he belongs to another club, is absolute rubbish. Discussions have gone way beyond the point of no return. Sir Alex Ferguson knows this now so you can imagine how it has gone down.’
This explains United’s decision to lodge a formal complaint with Fifa, claiming that Ronaldo has been tapped up; a threat that, although announced occasionally by clubs, is rarely acted upon. Last week a national newspaper also published a photograph of Ronaldo meeting a Real official in January in Rome, the club’s fitness instructor, Walter Di Salvo, who left Old Trafford for the Bernabéu.
[Guardian]
June 12, 2008
Manchester United star Cristiano Ronaldo inspired Portugal to a 3-1 win over the Czech Republic.
Portugal went ahead through Deco in the eighth minute. Ronaldo played a neat one-two with Nuno Gomes and, after Petr Cech had initially done well to save at the feet of the Manchester United winger, Deco scrambled home from close range.
Czech Republic instantly hit back as Libor Sionko dived to nod in Jaroslav Plasil’s corner on 17 minutes.
Chelsea keeper Cech could do nothing in the 63rd minute when Ronaldo smashed Deco’s cross low into the far corner with a crisp first-time effort from inside the box.
Czech Republic poured forward in the dying moments but they were a dealt a sucker punch in the first minute of extra time when a long punt upfield released Ronaldo, who closed on Cech and simply squared for Ricardo Quaresma to slide home into an empty net.
[Premierleague]
June 11, 2008
His performance on the pitch is undoubtedly impressive, but Cristiano Ronaldo can now add another accolade to his list of achievements.
The Portuguese striker has scored a goal with European women, who voted him the sexiest player of the current Euro 2008 tournament.
German website Spiegel Online reported that the 23-year-old Manchester United star topped the poll of 12,000 women, which was conducted on behalf of electronics company LG.
“Unfortunately for his legions of female fans [Ronaldo] is no longer available,” the Spiegel Online article continued.
“He’s dating Spanish model Nereida Gallardo.”
Other footballers to make the cut included France’s Thierry Henry and Germany’s captain Michael Ballack.
Euro 2008’s sexiest footballers:
1: Cristiano Ronaldo
2: Thierry Henry
3: Fabio Cannavaro
4: Freddie Ljungberg
5th= Michael Ballack, Luca Toni and Iker Casillas
[Nzherald]