Ronaldo, Julio Baptista and Ivan Helguera were expected to leave Real Madrid before yesterday's transfer deadline, provided the club could arrange exchange deals.
Ronaldo would be swapped for Inter Milan striker Adriano to rejoin the club he played for from 1997-2002.
Midfielder Baptista would move to Arsenal, with Spain forward Jose Antonio Reyes achieving a long-awaited transfer to the Spanish club, and defender Helguera would join Valencia in return for Argentina's Roberto Ayala.
PHOTO: EPA
The deals would continue Real Madrid's transformation under new president Ramon Calderon and recently appointed coach Fabio Capello, who are seeking to end the club's three-year drought without a a major trophy.
Speculation has surrounded Ronaldo's future since March, when he threatened to quit the club after being regularly jeered by fans attending Madrid's home games.
Calderon recently suggested if the price was right he was prepared to offload the striker, who is under contract until 2008. The Spanish club held talks with AC Milan last week although the clubs failed to agree to a fee.
Capello reportedly prefers the style and youth of the 24-year-old Adriano to Ronaldo, who is five years older. Ronaldo has yet to play under Capello as he is recovering from knee surgery after the World Cup.
Ronaldo's position in the team is also threatened by the recent signing of Ruud van Nistelrooy from Manchester United.
The three-time world player of the year helped Madrid win the Spanish league in his first season, but the club has since won nothing in its longest streak without silverware since the early 1950s.
The Reyes-Baptista swap is said to hold the key to Ronaldo's departure, El Pais newspaper said.
Baptista's departure to Arsenal would free up one of the three places allocated to non-EU players in Madrid's squad and allow Adriano would take up the place.
Madrid has made earlier cash bids to sign Reyes, but Arsenal's insistence on a higher fee halted any deal.
The London club hoped to sign Baptista from Sevilla a year ago, although the Brazil midfielder instead chose to join Madrid in a 20 million euro (US$25 million) deal.
Baptista is regarded as dispensable by Capello, who has already brought in three other new players as well as van Nistelrooy -- Fabio Cannavaro, Emerson and Mahamadou Diarra.
Reyes, who joined Arsenal from Sevilla in January 2004 and who last year extended his contract to 2011, has long since shown interest in a return home.
The 22-year-old said last weekend he wouldn't play again in the English league and, with Atletico Madrid also interested, suggested he didn't mind which Spanish club he joined.
SSC Napoli’s Italian Serie A title hopes suffered a late setback on Sunday when they were held to a 2-2 draw at home against Genoa, setting up a thrilling season finale with closest rivals Inter just one point behind. The hosts remain top with 78 points, holding a slim lead over Inter, who won 2-0 at Torino earlier on Sunday, with two rounds remaining. To make matters worse for Napoli, midfielder Stanislav Lobotka, struggling with an ankle injury, was forced off just minutes after the match began. Scott McTominay delivered a perfect pass into the box where Romelu Lukaku got
Harry Kane opened the scoring ahead of lifting his first career silverware as Bayern Munich beat Borussia Moenchengladbach 2-0, with veteran Thomas Mueller playing his last home game for the club. Bayern officially won the title on May 4 when defending champions Bayer Leverkusen were held to a 2-2 draw at Freiburg, but were presented with the Bundesliga shield in front of their home fans at full-time. Dripping wet after being showered with beer by teammates, Kane said the title win was “an incredible feeling,” and hoped it would be “the first of many.” “It’s been lot of hard work, a lot of
Taiwanese e-sports veteran Lin “ET” Chia-hung yesterday successfully defended his King of Fighters XV title at this year’s Evolution Championship Series: Japan (EVO Japan), securing his second consecutive championship. Lin claimed victory with a 3-1 win over Japanese pro gamer “mok” in the grand final, repeating his earlier 3-1 win against the same opponent in the winners’ final. The 40-year-old earned a ￥1 million (US$6,897) cash prize at the two-day tournament, which drew 294 competitors. Mok, Lin’s toughest rival in the bracket, took home ￥400,000 as runner-up. Lin remains undefeated in match sets against mok in King of Fighters XV, holding a 10-0 record,
Batting great Virat Kohli yesterday announced his immediate retirement from Test cricket, just days before India name their squad for a tour to England. Kohli, who scored 9,230 runs in 123 matches at an average of 46.85, posted his decision on Instagram five days after India captain Rohit Sharma called time on his own Test career. Since making his debut in 2011, Kohli struck 30 hundreds and 31 fifties with a highest score of 254 not out, mainly batting at number four in the order. “It’s been 14 years since I first wore the baggy blue in Test cricket,” the
RSS