United close in on Ronaldinho swoop

After losing David Beckham to Real Madrid it appears Manchester United have got one over on their Spanish rivals in the race to sign Ronaldinho after the Brazilian ace picked Old Trafford as his favoured destination.

Alex Ferguson has made the World Cup winner his prime target but, at one stage, it appeared Ronaldinho was following Beckham’s path to the Bernabeu.

However, once the Spanish club intimated they preferred to make a down-payment with current club Paris Saint-Germain this season and sign him the next, the Brazilian’s enthusiasm waned.

Neither do the other two interested parties, Barcelona or Chelsea, present an attractive option.

He has now decided that Manchester United are the best option and is waiting for his club and the Premiership champions to thrash out an acceptable fee.

Ronaldinho has told his brother Roberto Assis, who acts as his agent, that he has made up his mind about a move to Old Trafford.

Assis said: “Ronaldinho wants to go to Manchester United, so at the moment it’s just a question of waiting for the deal to be completed.”

Ronaldinho has already upped the ante over his proposed move by failing to return to the French capital for pre-season training yesterday after the refusal of his club to grant his extra time off following his Confederations Cup commitments last month.

Like Ferguson and United chief executive Peter Kenyon, the star striker, whose free-kick memorably eliminated England from last summer’s World Cup, has become increasingly frustrated at PSG’s failure to conclude a transfer with the Old Trafford outfit.

Although Ronaldinho has expressed a preference for a move to Spain, only Real Madrid fit the bill and while the deal offered by the nine-times European Cup winners which would have seen the player remain with PSG for another season might have been appealing to PSG, the prospect of missing out on another season of Champions League football is unpalatable to the player.