Ronaldo and co hit Irish training camp

REAL Madrid’s star turn was one of a 60-strong squad who last night descended on Carton House in an onslaught of foreigners not seen on the shores of the Rye since the days of the Norman invasion.

Famous as the former seat of the Earl of Kildare, it can now lay claim to a seat supported by the most expensive legs in the world – Ronaldo and his €80 million pins.

What seems an unlikely location for the good and the great of big club football, is in fact part of a meticulously planned event beginning over a year ago with talks between Platinum One, an Irish sports management company, and Carton House.

According to David Webster, the hotel’s general manager, they were keen to develop training facilities that would allow them compete for a slice of the lucrative pre-season training European football market.

“Platinum One had looked after Barcelona’s pre-season training in Scotland last year. We knew they had the experience so we started talking to them over a year ago.

“We began to develop the pitches and we’ve had officials from Real Madrid inspecting our work since last October.

“The two pitches were designed with the aim of attracting Europe’s leading sports teams, be it Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester Utd, Barcelona. We want to be on a par with La Manga, Spain’s leading pre-season training resort,” Mr Webster said.

The pitches are man-made, using sand-based turf, and an irrigation system based on that employed at Manchester Utd.

“When they were being sown, it was done with laser technology so that the surface is absolutely flat, with one degree of gradient for drainage. To the naked eye, they look completely flat,” Mr Webster said.

The pitches were tried and tested during a Dublin V Louth GAA football match in April and more recently when Newcastle Utd stayed at the same venue.

Mr Webster said they are talking “to all the big clubs” and that “quite a few” had made site visits, but he was not at liberty to disclose if any had confirmed bookings.

Ronaldo and his team mates – minus Kaka, exempted from training due to his involvement in the Confederations Cup – can look forward to a diet of chicken and pasta, fruit and veg and the trickery of chef Cathal Kavanagh, tasked with providing tasty meals while meeting the strictest of dietary requirements.

As for Ronaldo – there will be no special treatment. “There is no hierarchy at play here,” Mr Webster said.

Carton House is no stranger to extravagant young men. It fell out of the hands of the FitzGerald family in the mid-20th century after the seventh Duke of Leinster, Lord Edward FitzGerald, sold his birthright to a moneylender on foot of a gambling debt.

Its most recent owners offer guests “more reasons to enjoy yourself”.

As if Ronaldo and his Real Madrid team mates needed any.