United announce signing of other Ronaldo

Manchester United have announced the signing of Portuguese teenager Cristiano Ronaldo from Sporting Lisbon on a five-year contract.

Manchester United have signed Portuguese teenager Cristiano Ronaldo on a five-year contract from Sporting Lisbon.

The 18-year-old forward becomes the fourth summer signing made by the Barclaycard Premiership champions.

The club made the announcement to the Stock Exchange and the deal is worth a total of £12.24m (€17.3m).

Ronaldo said: “I am very happy to be signing for the best team in the world, and especially proud to be the first Portuguese player to join Manchester United.

"I look forward to helping the team achieve even more success in the years to come.”

Alex Ferguson claimed an agreement had been in place to sign the player "months ago" but the Red Devils quickened their pursuit when it became clear other clubs were also chasing him.

He said: “We have been negotiating for Cristiano for quite some time, but the interest in him from other clubs accelerated in the last few weeks so we had to move quickly to get him.

“It was only through our association with Sporting that they honoured our agreement of months ago. He is an extremely talented footballer, a two-footed attacker who can play anywhere up front: right, left or through the middle.

“After we played Sporting last week the lads in the dressing room talked about him constantly, and on the plane back from the game they urged me to sign him – that’s how highly they rated him. He is one of the most exciting young players I’ve ever seen.”

Ronaldo impressed for Portugal at the European U19 Championships in Liechtenstein.

Chelsea were also reported to be interested in the player, but they have been beaten to the punch by United.