United accept record bid for Cristiano Ronaldo (1st Lead)

Jun 11, 2009, 10:05 GMT

   London - Manchester United have accepted an 80-million-pound (131.7 million dollars) bid from Real Madrid for winger Cristiano Ronaldo, the club said on Thursday.

   A statement on the club's website said: 'At Cristiano's request - who has again expressed his desire to leave - and after discussion with the player's representatives, United have agreed to give Real Madrid permission to talk to the player.'

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

   If the deal goes through, it would break the previous transfer record of around 67 million euros (59 million pounds/94.16 million dollars) set earlier this week as Brazilian forward Kaka moved from AC Milan to Madrid.

With Florentino Perez back as president of Real Madrid, the Spanish club is reported to have up to 200 million euros to spend on a team capable of challenging the domestic and European domination of Barcelona.

According to Thursday's Spanish sports daily Marca, which has strong connections with Perez, Cristiano Ronaldo has agreed to a six-year contract with Real worth around 9 million euros per season.

   This is approximately the same as the Spanish giants will be paying Kaka, making the pair two of the highest-paid players in the world.

   Real have been after Cristiano Ronaldo for two years, but former club president Ramon Calderon only succeeded in irritating United manager Sir Alex Ferguson over his approaches for the player.

United lodged a complaint with world governing body FIFA last June over what they saw as a deliberate attempt by Real to unsettle the winger, who joined United in 2003 from Sporting Lisbon for 12.2 million pounds.

   Perez, who retook control on June 1, is determined to build a sparkling new team capable of ending Real's European frustrations. Not since 2004 have the whites managed to get beyond the round of 16 in the Champions League - unlike historic rivals Barcelona.

   In his previous spell as president, from 2000 to 2006, Perez signed big stars in Luis Figo, Zinedine Zidane, Ronaldo and David Beckham.

   His first signings this time around were Chilean coach Manuel Pellegrini from Villarreal, Jorge Valdano as director general, Miguel Pardeza as sporting director and Zidane as presidential adviser.

   On Thursday Marca quoted Valdano as saying that 'Pellegrini will have some of the best players in the world at his disposal.'