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| Sell? Buy? Hold? |
| Anand Sankar / New Delhi Apr 05, 2009, 00:37 IST |
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As the European football season enters its climax, the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga returns.
As if all the drama during last year’s closed season wasn’t enough, the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer soap opera is now back. As the English Premier League club Manchester United tries to end the season with a record haul of five trophies, it will not help that unconfirmed reports have again surfaced that their star player has “agreed” to move to continental rival Real Madrid, and the price will be an eye-watering £75 million.
It has been football’s most tiresome transfer saga, with Real Madrid chasing Ronaldo since 2006. Matters came to a head last year, and in December United’s manager Sir Alex Ferguson was so incensed at the persistent rumours that he responded with his best-ever outburst, saying that he would not “sell a virus” to that “mob”.
This time the reports claim that talks between Real Madrid, Ronaldo’s agent and United did not end, after all. They just went under the radar, and a formal announcement will be made at the end of the season. Ronaldo, after publicly expressing his desire to move to Madrid last year, was given the silent treatment by United fans for the start of this season, but the crowd got behind him as soon as he started scoring. His goal tally this season stands at 18.
Ronaldo has come a long way, from the shy teenager who signed for United from Sporting Lisbon. It is hard to believe that the player is still only 24 years old. He has matured into probably Europe’s most deadly attacking talent.
His Iberian good looks have ensured that he is marketable among United’s fans worldwide, and he is today linked with a number of women. If one goes back to just over a year ago, he even had India’s own Bipasha Basu in his arms for a few minutes.
There has been silence from United about these latest reports. Their stand has been that Ronaldo is contracted to them till 2012.
Though reports suggest that the player is playing against his will, Sir Ferguson would loathe to lose such an attacking talent when he knows how expensive it is to buy a replacement, and how long it takes to groom one.
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