Sky Sports' Spanish football expert Guillem Balague has been following the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer saga every step of the way.
The Revista de la Liga pundit was not surprised to Real Madrid table an £80million bid for the Manchester United superstar as club president Florentino Perez bids to rebuild the Spanish giants this summer.
Perez: more big names on the way
Guillem told Sky Sports News how the Ronaldo deal is all part of Perez's masterplan, and how the signing could eventually prove to be "cheap" for Real Madrid.
He also explained that after Kaka and Ronaldo, there are plenty more big-name signings on the way to the Bernabeu, which could be bad news for Liverpool supporters...
How the deal began
"We broke the story at the beginning of the year that there was a pre-contract that [former Real president] Ramon Calderon had signed on behalf of Real Madrid.
Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo are, in his eyes, cheap signings. You spend £80million on the player now, but Florentino told me when I met him last week that that's the kind of money he can bring to Real Madrid every single year.
Guillem Balague
Quotes of the week
In that pre-contract it very clearly stated that if by June 30 Cristiano Ronaldo decided not to join Real Madrid, he would have to pay €30million to the club.
If, on the other hand, Real Madrid decided not to sign Cristiano Ronaldo they would have to pay €30million to the player.
So basically it was bound to happen and from the moment Florentino Perez decided to join Real Madrid it was very clear that Cristiano Ronaldo was the perfect man for the kind of thing he has tried to do in the past, in the Galactico era and the Galactico version II era.
Kaka and Cristiano Ronaldo are, in his eyes, cheap signings. You spend £80million on the player now, but Florentino told me when I met him last week that that's the kind of money he can bring to Real Madrid every single year.
So it was just a matter of when and not if. And because of that pre-contract it was a matter of sorting out things pretty quickly."
Getting value for money
"Remember when David Beckham signed for Real Madrid for £25million and people said 'wow, isn't that a little bit too much?'
You realise now that money was peanuts and three-times that money was coming in every year to Real Madrid. It is the same story with Kaka and with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The previous chairman Ramon Calderon tried to follow the Galactico era, but couldn't which suggests it is very difficult.
But once you put the whole thing in motion, as Florentino did in the past with Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo and Beckham then there is so much money coming into Real Madrid that it can continue it for a long time - so long as Florentino learns from his mistakes.
I think he has. As he said a couple of weeks ago, he's trying to sort out three years in one single summer - so that's why you are not going to just see Kaka and Ronaldo arriving, but others.
In his eyes it all makes sense and spending £80million on Ronaldo is not that much money."
How the deal was agreed
"Florentino basically realised that things had been done the wrong way in the past.
Yes, there was a pre-contract that was agreed by Ramon Calderon and Jorge Mendes, the agent of Cristiano Ronaldo, but the contacts with Manchester United hadn't been friendly.
What he did through the interview that we used on Revista was offer the hand of friendship towards Manchester United again.
From then on it was just a matter of time before the clubs talked. It's been at least twice that I know of, it's been direct conversations between David Gill and Florentino Perez.
Once it was put on the table, £80million is something that nobody - not even Manchester United, the richest club in the world - can say 'no' to.
Ronaldo was asked on the issue and he said 'yes, please accept this'.
What happened is pretty natural, although as you can imagine it's going to get a lot of people upset and the likes of Sir Alex Ferguson will have to have a little bit of a u-turn with his words."
More to come...
"They're not finished. Real reckon they could spend about €300 million and from the conversation I had with Florentino Perez, it's money that will eventually come back with returns.
It's partly money that they have in the coffers, but it's partly money that they're going to have to ask banks for. They reckon that within two years most of those debts will be paid.
We'll see. He's done it before and we suspect he's going to do it again. There's €130 to €140million to spend.
Names you can expect Real Madrid to approach include David Villa, who will probably be the next one.
From my understanding there is a personal agreement between the player and Real Madrid in that the player has said no to Manchester City and Chelsea because he wants to go to Real Madrid.
An offer of about €48million from Chelsea to Valencia has been rejected because Real Madrid are going to put all of their efforts into signing that player.
After that there is another Premier League interest in Xabi Alonso, who is definitely somebody they want to buy to partner Kaka and Ronaldo in midfield.
The big problem is Liverpool don't want to sell and don't want to sell cheaply.
They want to get a centre-back of international quality to play next to Pepe, who has shown he has the quality to be one of the top centre-backs.
They have Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos and it is quite clear that they need a left-back. They are going to have 11 top, amazing players and then the job will be to sell some of the players.
They will sell 10 or 12 players and then fill the gaps with less expensive, but still useful players. That's the idea."
Comments (121)
Abhinav Subramani (Real Madrid fan) says...
everyone says the galacticos era was a failure. lets look at the facts, from 2000 to 2006 real madrid won 2 champions leagues 3 spanish league and some other cups, only after 2004 did the trophy drought start, that was when zidane, figo got old and could not play on the regular basis with the same physical peformance and ronaldo (the brazilian) got fat. this time perez is buyin the stars at a younger age and at the same year so they have time to gel, we may not win anything the coming season but this is a team for the future. also manu fans u guys go the bad side of the deal, not only did you lose the best player, the prices of other players have been hiked due to our spending spree so u can buy at max 1 world class players, ohh and btw we have zidane so if bayern decide to sell ribery it will be to madrid not manu, benzema is not moving cuz he said so, silva will join liverpool or madrid and aguro liverpool or intermilan. also the agruement about cantona keane leaving and manu becoming stronger does not hold good in this case cuz all the previous sales SAF had some already lined up but not this time and it will be much harder to replace a ronaldo than a cantona.
Posted 11:40 15th June 2009
Dan Sikazwe (Real Madrid fan) says...
the Man united supporters are behaving rather foolishly, I mean they should know that Ronaldo has the right to play for any club if wants to. united has bought key players who they feel can help them win silver ware from other teams who also wanted to keep them and they have on a number of times spent big money to bring these players to old traford so whats the fuss about other clubs getting players from them? United fans can say what they want but ronaldo is a real player now, actually they should be thanking him for almost single handedly giving them the silverware they won last season and the premier league this season. he always scored vital goals that made huge difference. I personally dont care what they say, the fact is that ronaldo has matured into a big player, and all big players must play for a big club and real madrid is that big club for big stars. welcome ronaldo to the giant santiago barnabaur, it wont be an easy road but you have the mental strenghth and the quality to overcome!!!!
Posted 08:18 15th June 2009
Barry Scott says...
Vidic doesnt want to go, he said he is happy in england and wouldn't want to leave, United will sign someone people will say he's not good enough (like they did with ronaldo), fergie will train them and then he'll be amazing. As for how people are saying that we need to use that money to replace other players, thats rubbish, United have money to spend they can replace Van der Sar without the Ronaldo money. As for replacing Tevez, still a chance he could stay but if he doesn't im pretty certain that again fergie can find another replacement, don't forget he's the most successful manager of modern times and one of the most successful managers ever, people need to stop speculating about United being over and concentrate on their own team. Only City are being linked to players who are decent and might come to them, but they need a couple more seasons before they're ready. Chelsea hired a manager who inheirited a decent milan team, found kaka had a won the Champions league twice but didnt have the forsight to replace any of the older players and now those old milan players are being linked to Chelsea. Don't forget Milan have been struggling recently, Ancelotti isn't that great. Liverpool havent got the money, and are being linked to players who aren't fulfilling their potential (Richards is a poor trainers, why the richest club in the world will sell him) if they had they'd be the only serious contenders. Arsenal always need three more years, waiting for that youth. Supporters should speculate about their own teams problems and nobody elses, stop dreaming. If United get Valencia and Silva then all they need is a keeper and thats there first team sorted for a couple more years, including youth. What other team can say that?
Posted 02:01 15th June 2009
Ricardo Gordon (Real Madrid fan) says...
As a Real Madrid fan i am having mixed feelings about these player purchases. I have full confidence in the KAKA purchase but ronaldo i'm not too sure about. for one who will really track back and tackle. there was that issue with kaka and ronaldinho at milan, and i dont see ronaldo trying that any time soon. the first galactico era worked upto 2002/03 season but after that it went down hill. i keep hearing perez sayin it was a successful spell. but really who was it successful for. certainly not me cause i aint got no shares in REAL MADRID. from a fans point of view our shares are in happiness from winning trophies which he didnt do in his latter years. i think he need to focus more on what he forgot about the last time which was a defence and a strong holding midfielder. also i'm not fully confident in this coach. he a good coach but i dont think he's got what real needs ( he seems to have no say in what purchases are made). if he (perez) wants to buy these star players then he will need someone who can keep them in check. Del Bosque was excellent in that, so was Cappello (both of whom won the league and then was axed later). i just hope this time ZiZou advises him well. and its not all about money in the bank and more trophies in the closet.
Posted 01:46 15th June 2009
Nicolas G says...
I doubt the Manchester United era will ever be over though I don't like to admit that. Real Madrid are a club with no passion and no matter who they get, they will always lack team spirit which could be down to the fact Real seem to get bored of their managers too quickly. In terms of winning trophies, Man United will always win more then Real Madrid simply because the Manchester United board think logically and methodically and allow Alex Ferguson to take charge of the football matters with which he has been able to build great teams based on a winning formula and does it effortlessly and efficiently. Real Madrid have a mentality to get everything new every single season. It makes me sick that so many great coaches have coached Madrid over the years, Del Bosque, Schuster and Capello all with a good domestic record all sacked and now they have a new decent manager in Pellegrini. How long will he last for? The Galactico era worked. Zidane (in my opinion I rever him to be the greatest footballer of my generation ) added a touch of class but now Real lack substance just like the Cristiano Ronaldo step-overs. The galactico period was magical with awesome players like Figo, Zidane and Ronaldo in their prime, with Makelele pulling strings. I don't think Real will ever have the chance to replicate their past successes simply because they think money will do the trick instead of planning for the future. Honestly, when Ruud was sold to Real, I thought that was the end for United, how wrong I was.
Posted 00:53 15th June 2009
Walidos Red devil (Manchester United fan) says...
U will be all chocked when u will see de maria or Silva replacing Ronny and torres taking the place of tevez!!Fergie is too smart and i'm sure that cristiano wont do anything for RealMadrird!what can u do for a dead man?just praying for him!!looool!!!!game over pell!!well ilike to see nani and heargraves playing again !!i miss them!!and u will see!We will any possible title the next year!!In Fergie We beleive!!Manutd is just the best :)
Posted 00:32 15th June 2009
Mohammad Almunier (Manchester United fan) says...
i think that all ppl are giving the cr7 deal alot bigger than it takes heey ppl he is a very good player but u r takin about ahuge club with a huge history over than 131 years ,all players r retired before but the big clubs like manchester and arsenal and leverpool and barca and milan and juve......r still her even when there big super stars goes dont forget that football is a 11 players game not 1 player game so manchester have alot of players and alot of fans and alot of money ,manU is a very stronge team so the club can do well with or without ronaldo..i have faith on this club to get over a small thing like ronaldo get out from united because united can do another legend as he did before many times
Posted 20:24 14th June 2009
James L (Manchester United fan) says...
ok fair enough tht ronaldo has gne but when you think about it when fergie bought ronaldo from sporting he wasnt a known player so whats stopping fergie finding another unknown world class player that can do the same job as ronaldo. and fair enough people want the likes of villa and ribery to come to man utd but does that mean they will do good? i mean look at shevchenko when he went to chelsea he was absolutely rubbish, there are so many examples of good players coming to the premier league and doing absolutely nothing apart from waste a year of their careers.
Posted 20:12 14th June 2009
Mark R (Manchester United fan) says...
I am a ManU fan, but to be honest i'm not too worried about ronaldo leaving. i think, although he is a great individual player, he had an upsetting impact in the dresing room and even harmed the balance of the team. Fair enough, he scored plenty of goals..but giving the fact he never tracked back and played in an attacking minded team i dont think this is as impressive as others make it out to be. it just means the goals will be spread more throughout the attack and midfield players. And for £80mil...a good deal buy silva!!
Posted 19:25 14th June 2009
Rob Johnson (Manchester United fan) says...
I will be gutted to see ronny go, but i'm not worried. I have a lot faith in fergie. Time after time he's proved all the doubters wrong. We will be challenging for everything again as we always do. I'm looking forward to who's coming in. The money has done us a lot of favours. United only need a few tweaks to the team to become an even better side. Bring on next season with our new stars in the red and white at Old Trafford.
Posted 19:00 14th June 2009
C F says...
He's gone. I'm gutted, not going to ever deny that. But he's always said he wanted to, so who are we to stop him? 80 million is not cheap, however you look at it. Also, what happened to teams making their own stars? What happened to loyalty? Ronnie upped and left at the earliest opportunity that we allowed. I don't care if he's the best player in the world, he's totally forgotten where the hell he came from and good riddance. He'll do well over there no doubt, but no player is bigger than the club, especially not Man Utd. All you Liverpool supporters talk like it's over, like one player was winning all of them trophies, errr no, there were 11 players on the field, and they won it too. We're the same team, without Ronaldo, big deal. Least we've won the Premiership recently, unlike liverpool, who beat ya to it this season? Oh yea, us. Sour grapes anyone? And before people keep spouting that Vidic is going, no he isn't. He's just come out and said he's happy where he is. Perhaps Liverpool fans should worry more about their own club, than what happens to the Champions.
Posted 17:37 14th June 2009
Xavi Xavi (Barcelona fan) says...
Nobody can believe these numbers of Florentino, if these players are profitable why Real Madrid has a debt of 500M euros now??? and if you consider they sold some terrains in year 2000 for another 550M euros you have a difference of 1050M euros. RM have squandered more than 1000M euros this decade. Where is the profit???
Posted 01:59 14th June 2009
Colin Kumi (Manchester United fan) says...
Ofcourse utd aren't finshed. We've still got the defence and we've still got Rooney who will surely get more goals playing his preferred position behind Berbatov who himself will be in his second season. Alota people don't realise Nani has Ronaldo's ability but is just not as confident. That only comes with playing and should now be given a run on the right. He's nearly always played on the left which is why we haven't seenhis best stuff. We've got the Serbian Tosic to come in on the left and IF Hargreaves can recover in the knees he can take his place in the middle with Carrick. Park, Fletcher, Anderson, Giggs and Scholes will provide the back up and so really need to only look at strikers; one or two depending on what happens with Tevez. So if Team Utd are to buy then it needs be replacements for what we have as I don't think we need to add.
Posted 00:30 14th June 2009
Henry Ofori-kuragu (Arsenal fan) says...
By the way, I'm 14. It will all end the same for Real. If the Galactico era didn't work then, how in the world will it work now? Do you honestly think with the likes of kaka, ronaldo and villa in your team that anyone will track back. Why do think barcalona are so successful? Becase Xavi and Iniesta TRACK back and they also pass. NO ONE in that team will pass to each other because they all have very high statures. It's ok wen you have 1 star, but 11? its impossible for them to gel as a unit. If anyone out their thinks that real will dominate europe, i suggest you think bcuz they will always play second fiddle to barca and not qualify for knockout stage of the champions leauge.
Posted 21:08 13th June 2009
Rory Malone (Celtic fan) says...
I think people forget Real also have the 2 Diarra's and Ezequiel Garay to come back. Also Pellegrini has been a miracle worker at Villareal. He could turn Pepe into a top class defender and also players like Marcelo Etc.....as well as take some of his Villareal players to the Bernabeu. Once this team gel's under Pellegrini no one will fancy playing them...
Posted 20:10 13th June 2009
Mack Haynes (Fulham fan) says...
Is it just me or does anybody else hope Barca top Real this season? Barca who dont 'cheapen' their shirts with sponsors but instead a charity - unicef, who they donate to! they have always strived to play entertaining football, their loyal fanatical fan base derives from the days when it was virtually illegal to be a catalan! Fantastic history, fantastic fans, fantastic football - more than a club (as is there famous motto) For all real's money they give the image of a greedy ruthless machine often funded by questionable money! Barca although also wealthy seem romantic, elegant robin hoods in comparison. hopefully another good season for Barca awaits.
Posted 19:45 13th June 2009
Dave Bacon (Arsenal fan) says...
Eleven players,even good ones, do not make a team. I expect Madrid to go through two or three coaches in the next twelve months as the try to emulate Barca. Someone should tell Perez that you need eleven players who can play together, a good coach and above all NO interference from the board in football matters. Then maybe you will win a few trophies.
Posted 14:43 13th June 2009
Ger Takei (Bolton Wanderers fan) says...
I don't understand this belief that Real will make much more out of Ronaldo than he costs...if this were the case then surely United would have got £300m for him. United are the most commercially minded club in the world, if they have demanded more if he was worth a greater amount as a revenue source for TV revenue and selling extra shirts in Asia etc. It appears to be pretty unsustainable and very high risk, the last galaticos era was not the success it was expected to be. New players come along all the time to replace then last generation, Real always seem to buy players after they have reached their pinnacle. This might be different for Ronaldo cause he's only 24 but it only takes a season or two of underperformance to lose repuation, look at Ronaldinho now he's not half the player he was.
Posted 14:30 13th June 2009
Oli(man u fan) Platt (Manchester United fan) says...
This whole thing really sucks! Mind you when Real bought bought Beckham, Heinze and Ruud[Damn you Perez] none of them played up to their expectations. Hopefully Ronaldo will soon be rubbish just like all Real player. P.S. Screw you Florentino Perez!
Posted 14:24 13th June 2009
Lewis Ronaldo (Real Madrid fan) says...
as a real madrid fan since the 04/05 season i've watched more than my fair share of galacticos from figo to beckham to carlos to zidane but in my eyes the 06/07 was the final season of the first galacticos with zidane, beckham, figo, carlos, ronaldo all gone by the end of the season but now the team is using the stored up money to rebuild a bigger better team from players a little younger and i can't wait to see the first Madrid/Barca clash of the new season
Posted 14:23 13th June 2009
Video
Recent Comments:
Bibiana Santiso on Double standards?
"I've been living in Spain for 12 years now and it still astonished me how people can be so cynical. Did Spain by any change win the Eurocup or World Cup by cheating? Wasn't Rooney's 3 ... " View all comments
Cem Takaci on Making his mark
"Hi Guillem, all of this hype sourounding jose mourinho and the saying that the wave is swinging for real madrid right now. But once Jose leaves and it does seem that he will if not this... " View all comments
Siyavuya Zamxaka on Awesome foursome
"wonderfull column as always...I think Madrid have a better chance of winning the Cup game in all of these 4 games. This is because Mourinho can play any system and not worry about how ... " View all comments
Nicolas Kyriacou on Playmaker problems
"It's painful to watch someone like Ibrahimovic leading the line for Barcelona. He lacks pace, movement and reaction. He is slow and ponderous on the ball and slows the tempo of their ... " View all comments
Scott Mcclymont on Running out of time?
"Hi Guillem, With regards to Ronaldo coming back to United, I think this could happen after his contract has finished at RM. He's making all the right noises and isn't dismissing the ... " View all comments