Calderon: Agreement was in place

Former Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon claims a “gentleman’s agreement” existed over the signing of Cristiano Ronaldo before he left the Spanish giants in January.

Real had an £80m offer for the Portuguese accepted by Manchester United yesterday, less than two weeks after Florentino Perez returned as the Bernabeu club’s supremo.

Perez has been credited with immediately instilling the ’Galacticos’ culture of his previous reign, with a deal for Kaka clinched earlier this week.

However, Calderon, who came close to signing Ronaldo last summer, insists he was responsible for much of the groundwork that led to yesterday’s events.

“We were in touch with the player. That is the important thing to know now,” Calderon told The Sun.

“As far as I knew, he got the agreement with the club. He wanted to leave at the end of this season.

“That was what he agreed with the club and therefore it was easy, knowing that the player wanted to come to Real Madrid, to get a deal let’s say. We agreed everything and he decided to come.”

Calderon added: “Let’s say it was a gentleman’s agreement in order not to bother Manchester last season, because (United manager, Alex) Ferguson also wanted to keep the player.

“For this reason we decided to wait until this season and that is what has happened.”