Source: Eurosport
Calderon: Agreement was in place
Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon claims a "gentleman's agreement" existed over the signing of Manchester United winger Cristiano Ronaldo before he left the Spanish giants in January.
Real have had an £80million offer for the Portugal international accepted by United, less than two weeks after Florentino Perez returned as the Bernabeu club's supremo.
Perez has been credited with immediately instilling the `Galacticos' culture of his previous reign, with a deal for Kaka clinched earlier this week.
However, Calderon, who came close to signing Ronaldo last summer, insists he was responsible for much of the groundwork and told The Sun: "We were in touch with the player. That is the important thing to know now.
"As far as I knew he got the agreement with the club. He wanted to leave at the end of this season. That was what he agreed with the club and therefore it was easy, knowing the player wanted to come to Real Madrid to get a deal let's say.
"We agreed everything and he decided to come. Let's say it was a gentleman's agreement in order not to bother Manchester last season because (United manager, Sir Alex) Ferguson also wanted to keep the player. For this reason we decided to wait until this season and that is what has happened."
