MADRID, Spain (AP) - Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon has criticized suggestions by Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson that the Spanish club is trying to lure Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ferguson attacked Madrid on Friday for allegedly using the Spanish media to unsettle the 23-year-old Portugal captain.
"I'm really surprised by what he said about us. I don't understand Ferguson," Calderon was quoted as saying by sports daily Marca on Sunday.
"Real Madrid has behaved exquisitely in the matter of Cristiano Ronaldo. We have always said he is a player who has a contract and that Manchester United is a club who is not selling. That's all," he added.
Calderon last week compared United's efforts to keep Ronaldo to slavery.
Ronaldo, whose contract with United expires in 2012, has hinted recently he plans to leave the newly crowned European and English champions but has said he won't make an announcement on his future for several weeks.
Marca - which has been accused by Ferguson of being a tool of Madrid's - said Sunday that the Spanish champions will offer United a world-record fee of €80 million (US$126 million) for the player who has scored 42 goals this season. The current highest fee is the US$65 million (now €41.2 million) Madrid paid for Zinedine Zidane in 2001.
The paper said Madrid plans to make Ronaldo the best-paid player in the world, with a net annual salary of €9.5 million (US$15 million).
It added that Madrid will offer the player a five-year contract and will allow him to keep all his image rights from marketing abroad and half those from Spain.
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