£80M Ronaldo Bid Accepted

[NexT]

Bye Bye Ronaldo

[manutdtillidie]

My favourite utd player ever............ Will be sadly missed.... 6 years great service thats all we need to remember. 80 million good business but wont be unless we strenghten. I reckon it will take 3 players to replace ronaldo. Owen will make up for some of the goals. Valencia will give us a bit of width an pace but we still need to replace the creative side look forward 2 seeing who SAF chooses for this job. Coz in my opinion this will be the hardest bit to replace. Ronaldo did have his bad habits but he was a genius on the ball. great player to watch week in week out. hopefully Macheda has started pre season well so he might step up this season i know he is thought of highly at OT. so he could also come in an maybe replace some goals we will missing from ronnie an tevez. 1 midfielder thats all we need

[Akiyo]

Thanks for the goals and memories Ronnie... you are special and did very well at utd

[RAB]

GOOD LUCK RONNIE

[yireddevil]

good riddance

[huy1878]

sorry for ronaldo was to leave hope will want to stand firm after this earthquake

[barry_d]

United have accepted a world record offer of £80m from Real Madrid for Cristiano Ronaldo.

"United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player," read a statement from the Old Trafford club.

It added that the decision came at Ronaldo's request after he "again expressed his desire to leave".

United described the offer for the 24-year-old forward as unconditional and added that they expected the matter to be concluded by 30 June.

It is understood that the transfer fee would be made available for Red Devils manager Sir Alex Ferguson to invest in the transfer market.

Madrid signed Brazilian Kaka for a reported £56m earlier in the week, surpassing the previous world record fee in pounds sterling of £45.6m, which Real paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001.

That deal was sealed by the ambition of returning Real president Florentino Perez, who previously led the Spanish club from 2000 to 2006 - during the famous galacticos era.

And Perez had previously made it clear he would do "everything possible" to sign Ronaldo.

Madrid have also been linked with Liverpool's Xabi Alonso, Valencia's David Villa and Bayern Munich's Franck Ribery since Perez's unopposed election signalled the return of their vast spending.

There had been reports that Madrid would have to pay a £26m penalty clause to Ronaldo as a consequence of an alleged "pre-contract" arrangement that had been agreed with the player's representative Jorge Mendes, if the Spanish club did not sign him this summer.

But the BBC's Steve Kingstone in Madrid stated that Real had yet to confirm any agreement to buy Ronaldo or the agreed price of £80m stated by United. Thursday is a public holiday in Madrid and no announcements are expected.

"This was one that was never ever going to go away," said BBC Radio 5 Live chief football correspondent Mike Ingham.

"After the Champions League final he criticised Sir Alex Ferguson's tactics, he threw his toys out of the pram in the derby with Manchester City after he was substituted. He's been very high maintenance. And £80m is hard to resist.

"Personally, I'm very sorry to see him leave but it's absolutely inevitable. If it hadn't been this summer it would have been next summer.

"This could mean they might be able to keep Carlos Tevez, maybe Wayne Rooney can be liberated."

Ronaldo, who joined United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon for £12.2m, was strongly linked with a move to the Spanish capital in the summer of 2008.

United lodged a complaint with world governing body Fifa last June over what they believed was a deliberate attempt by Real to unsettle the winger.

After a long, drawn-out saga that ran through the summer months, the Portugal international insisted he was happy at Old Trafford and remained at United for the 2008-2009 season.

In the 2007-08 season he scored 42 goals, which topped the previous club record for a midfielder held by George Best, and was on the scoresheet as United defeated Chelsea in the Champions League final.

Ronaldo was the top scorer for his club last season, with 26 goals, taking his total for United to 118 in 292 appearances.

i saw the signs coming but he has done a lot for us i am happy to see him fulfil his child hood dreams but he will truely be missed

[scottski]

think it was always on the cards, £80 million is good business.

[bluskey]

ronaldo can make 80 mil 4 real easily!!

[k4nth]

i think this was a good bit of business.