Manchester City’s new billionaire Arab owners say they are willing to pay US$240 million to land Cristiano Ronaldo from the Red side of the city.
“Ronaldo has said he wants to play for the biggest club in the world, so we will see in January if he is serious,” the Guardian newspaper quoted Sulaiman al-Fahim, of City’s new owners, the Abu Dhabi United Group, as saying on their Web site.
According to the report Tuesday, al-Fahim also wants to track down other major stars, including Arsenal striker Thierry Henry and Valencia’s David Villa as City, one of England’s perennial under-achievers in recent decades, head for the soccer stratosphere.
Al-Fahim says he wants to build a “dream team” which can compete in the Champions League within the coming three years.
City have already stunned fellow moneybags club Chelsea in landing Robinho from Real Madrid in a British record £32.5 million move on deadline day late on Monday.
And now Ronaldo, linked with Real for much of the summer, is seen as the potential jewel in the crown.
“Real Madrid were estimating his value at US$160 million, but for a player like that, to actually get him, will cost a lot more; I would think US$240 million,” the Guardian quoted al-Fahim as saying.
“But why not? We are going to be the biggest club in the world, bigger than both Real Madrid and Manchester United. We want a team who can win the Champions League,” he said.
Were such a mega-deal to materialize, it would be three times bigger than the current world record which Real paid Juventus for Zinedine Zidane in 2001.
“If we can get the biggest players in the world, and of course if the manager wants them, then we will get them,” said al-Fahim, who has agreed to acquire a majority stake in City, subject to due diligence, from former Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Al-Fahim has not disclosed the amount he is paying for City when he made the purchase on Monday on behalf of the Abu Dhabi United Group for Development and Investment, of which he is a board member.
English-language Abu Dhabi daily the National earlier on Tuesday estimated the value of the buyout at US$177 million.
Robinho, 24, will earn a reported US$300,000 a week at City, which would make him the highest-paid soccer player ever.
Ronaldo is currently on the sidelines as he recovers from ankle surgery in July.
Last season he scored 42 goals to help United retain their Premier League title and also win the Champions League, the Portuguese wideman scoring in the final win over Chelsea.
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