After Kaka, Real president sets sights on Ronaldo

MADRID (AFP) - 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. Perez said he had spoken to Bayern Munich representatives who said they were not interested in selling their French playmaker Franck Ribery. While he said he "respected" the German side's decision, he did not completely close the door to a bid for the player, saying that if Bayern changes its mind Real would be interested. Perez is also interested in signing David Villa, who scored a hat-trick during Spain's 6-0 friendly win in Azerbaijan on Tuesday, away from financially-troubled Spanish side Valencia. He said he was already spoken to Valencia's new president, Manuel Llorente, who told him that he was studying which players could be sold shortly.

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