CRISTIANO RONALDO’S £80million Manchester United exit has been laid bare by
the Real Madrid kingpin who pushed the deal over the line.
Ramon Calderon was a key player in the earth-shattering 2009 move.
And the former Bernabeu president has revealed for the first time how Real
initially swooped for Ronaldo in 2008 — only for the Portugal superstar to
tell the Spanish giants he owed United one final season.
Ronaldo, 29, topped the United scoring charts in his final year and led the
club to a Premier League and League Cup double.
But he then finally conviced David Gill to rubber-stamp his departure after
United’s former chief executive threatened to dig in his heels.
Calderon said: “We were two years dealing with it. Manchester didn’t want to
negotiate at all, but the player wanted to leave.
“He told me many times he was happy with Manchester, the fans and the coach,
he saw Alex Ferguson like a father — but he wanted to leave.
“We wanted him in the 2008-09 season and we were about to do that — but Gill
told me he wasn’t going to leave. The player phoned me.
“We were in Bogata playing a friendly match in August and he said, ‘President,
I can’t go this season because I have a commitment with my club, so let me
deal with this with Manchester United and I go to Real Madrid next season’.
“I talked to Gill and he sent me a letter saying, ‘Ramon, please don’t push
with this because we don’t want him to leave’.”
The deal is now football’s second-costliest transfer after Real Madrid broke
their own record to land Gareth Bale for £86m last summer.
Yet Calderon insists Ronaldo, who has scored 248 goals in 226 games at Real,
was a bargain.
He added: “We did a transfer — Manchester United wanted the money in cash.
“They said if they were going to lose the player we want to see the money up
front or in bank notes, in the briefcase!
“So we did it. We thought it was a cheap deal.”