Ballack denies making deal with Red Devils

BAYERN MUNICH midfielder Michael Ballack has denied reports he has come to a gentleman’s agreement to join Manchester United after the 2006 World Cup.

Ballack is understood to want to leave Bayern after one final season in the Bundesliga and there was speculation that the preliminary details of a free transfer have been provisionally agreed for him to sign a pre-contract agreement at Old Trafford next January.

But the player’s agent, Michael Becker, said no deal had been struck.

“There’s no pre-contract, no gentleman’s agreement,” he said. “Michael Ballack is facing the most important decision of his career. Why would he prematurely sign in England if we haven’t even spoken with the Italians and Spanish?”

“The only people we’re talking to at the moment are Bayern.”

United were understood to believe they have a gentleman’s agreement in place with Ballack, who has 57 international caps.

His arrival would signal the end of Roy Keane’s career at Old Trafford. But Bayern insisted they had offered Ballack a much-improved new contract.

“Everything’s in Ballack’s hands. I’d advise him to seize the opportunity,” said Bayern president Franz Beckenbauer.

“Who knows what will happen in a year? Perhaps you get an injury and cannot play in the [2006] World Cup that everyone’s watching,”

But Bayern coach Felix Magath admitted there was a danger they could lose the play-maker, who will be 29 in September. “Of course we want him to stay, but it’s in his hands,” he said.

Bayern’s chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge said Ballack would be ill-advised to move to United.

“[They are] not the Manchester of before. If I were a player, I would laugh about it,” he said.