After Kaka, Real president sets sights on Ronaldo

After completing a move for Kaka, Real Madrid president Florentino Perez has said he intends to talk to Manchester United in a bid to convince the club to let Crisiano Ronaldo join the Spanish giants.

“I have not yet spoken to them but I will do it in the coming days,” he told Spanish public radio RNE late on Tuesday.

Spanish media have reported that Real have a pre-agreement to sign the 24-year-old Portuguese winger from Manchester United but Perez said he has never seen this agreement, which was allegedly made by his predecessor.

However sports daily AS reported Wednesday that Perez had decided to pay 89 million euros (124 million dollars) for the 2008 FIFA World Footballer of the Year under the terms of this pre-agreement.

Rival paper Marca reported Wednesday that he had already spoken to David Gill, Manchester United’s chief executive, who told the new Real Madrid president that the player would cost 96 million euros (134 million dollars).

Ronaldo, who is under contract with United until 2012, was involved in a protracted transfer tug-of-war between the English and Spanish sides last summer, with the player having publicly admitted he wanted to join Real.

Real announced Monday that they had signed Brazilian playmaker Kaka, the 2002 FIFA World Footballer of the Year, from AC Milan for a reported fee of 65 million euros.

It was the club’s first signing since Perez was sworn in once again as president of Real Madrid on June 1.

Under his previous term at Real between 2000 and 2006 he signed top players like France’s Zinedine Zidane and England’s David Beckham which earned the club the knickname “Los Galacticos” and boosted revenues from sales of t-shirts and other club souvenirs.