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.
[Source]
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.”
[Source]
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]
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.
[Source]
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.
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